Connected
by QueenSchnee
Summary: Summary: After escaping from Alabasta, the Straw Hats end up on a marine controlled island where the Big Bad of the week has the ability to turn friends into enemies. Now the rest of the crew has to scramble as Luffy finds himself under her control. Zolu centric adventure fic (but with an overall Nakama focus) (for the 2016 One Piece Big Bang)
Summary: After escaping from Alabasta, the Straw Hats end up on a marine controlled island where the Big Bad of the week has the ability to turn friends into enemies. Now the rest of the crew has to scramble as Luffy finds himself under her control. Zolu centric adventure fic (but with an overall Nakama focus)

(and by post-Alabasta i mean that Robin literally reveals herself to the crew and then this fic happens. takes place right before Jaya too)

So this is my 2016 big bang project and my attempt to get back into fic writing. Im not so sure how much the second half of that worked, because I still procrastinated the hell outta this but it was fun!

Art for this fic was made by Mewiyev (at mewiyev dot tumblr dot com)

(last thing: at several points Luffy refers to the antagonist- Tamayo- as Tamago, the joke being that Luffy can't remember names and 'tamago' means 'egg', so yeah, not a very flattering nickname)

Anywho! Please enjoy this simple writer's attempts to get back into the game~

* * *

After all the chaos and trouble in Alabasta, it was a relief finally getting back to the ocean and being able to set sail again without worrying that a shadowy organization was trying to do them in at every turn. Although- Zoro's mood took a downward turn as he opened his eyes to see their new 'crewmate'- picking up one of the heads of said shadowy organization was definitely a mistake.

Robin, feeling his gaze pierce between her shoulder blades, turned her head just slightly and gave him an unreadable smile. They both knew that there was nothing that he could do in the current situation about his distrust of her since Luffy had already agreed to her joining the crew; and he was, if nothing else, someone who followed his Captain's decision. Even if the majority of those decisions were pretty fucking stupid.

And speak of the devil- Zoro closed his eyes again and leaned against the railing as he heard the slap of flip flops against the wood of the deck. "Zoro! Robin!" Luffy shouted.

It was followed by the sound of one of Luffy's limbs stretching as he pulled himself up onto Merry's figurehead from the deck. The rubber man, who had been down in the dumps just ten minutes ago due to Vivi's decision to not join them, was now sporting a huge grin. "Hey Zoro! Sanji said that he's gonna make a lot of food tonight! Doesn't that sound awesome?" He shouted and Zoro snorted at the mention of the blond idiot, but his lack of enthusiasm didn't stop Luffy's.

"Oh Robin- you haven't had any of Sanji's food yet, right? You're gonna love it. Sanji's the best chef!" He started going a mile a minute about Sanji's food, while Robin nodded along occasionally. It was hard to tell whether her interest in his words was genuine or not but Zoro knew that he couldn't trust that calm smile of hers either way.

Still, there wasn't anything that he could do right now so he settled down to take a nap. He closed his eyes and let his surrounding wash over him; from the rock of the ship on the ocean waves, to the smell of salt that hung in the air, to his Captain's voice- always so loud and expressive. He had moved on to some other topic now and his voice was occasionally joined by Robin's- with her soft voice making a sharp contrast to Luffy's boisterous one.

Since the beginning of their relationship, Zoro had always been aware of just how loud Luffy was. Despite the fact that he'd grown up in a dojo, and was used to worse levels of noise, Luffy's voice was always that much harder to get out of his head. Whether he was shouting his ambition to become the Pirate King to the world, singing an annoyingly off key song, or even just snoring in the dead of night, Zoro found that he didn't dislike all of those ever present sounds.

Zoro drifted off for a while, but he remained aware enough to notice when one person left. The footsteps were much too soft to be Luffy's, with the added click of a heel, so he knew that his Captain must have still been sitting on the Merry's head.

The noise dwindled rapidly after Robin's departure and Zoro approached something closer to real sleep. When he woke up again some time had passed but Zoro wasn't surprised to see Luffy still on Merry's head; it was his favorite spot on the ship after all. He was more surprised to see that Luffy was laying on his back, his hands laced behind his head, just staring at Zoro.

The look in his eyes was a bit disconcerting and Zoro had rarely seen him like that outside of a fight, when he was sizing up an opponent. The look stopped, however, when Luffy saw that he was awake. He blinked and then grinned before rolling over onto his stomach.

"Yo Zoro!"

Zoro grunted in response before rolling his head from side to side, trying to get any stiffness out of his neck. He did the same to his shoulders next, mindful of Luffy's gaze on him all the while. When he looked back at his Captain, he saw that the smile had slipped from Luffy's face a little and that he looked distracted instead.

Not knowing what else to do, Zoro observed him in turn. The sun was playing off of Luffy's hair, bringing out the lighter shades of brown in his nearly black hair. There were a few more bumps and scratches on his face that would fade with time- since it seemed like Luffy didn't really get scars with that rubbery body of his- and Luffy's eyes were a warm shade of brown and full of his usual brand of wide eyed curiosity.

Not for the first time, Zoro was struck by how young his Captain was. Although Zoro never would have made the mistake of thinking of Luffy as a child, he was still younger than Zoro. Younger than everyone except for Usopp and Chopper actually. Despite his age, he had an iron will that had impressed Zoro from the beginning, and still continued to now.

Deciding to quickly move away from those thoughts, Zoro stood up with a yawn, stretching a little as he did so. He rested his wrist on the hilt of his swords and walked over to Merry's figurehead. Leaning against the nearby railing, Zoro commented with,

"I'm surprised to see you still over here. I haven't heard any shouting so I assume that you haven't tried to bother the shit cook yet?"

Luffy smiled again and sat up. "Nah. Sanji promised me extra food if I left him alone while he was cooking so I decided to stay over here." He looked out towards the horizon. "Besides, I missed sitting on my special seat." He patted Merry's head and Zoro snorted at him again.

"You're usually asleep for much longer though Zoro. What's wrong with you?"

Zoro shrugged at the question. "Nothing much." His gaze strayed to the back of the ship where that woman was.

Luffy followed his gaze. "What? What is it?"

"Nothing." Zoro growled again, running a hand through his hair. Luffy frowned at the dismissal but his attention was immediately diverted when the door to the kitchen opened and Sanji looked out.

"Hey assholes- dinner's ready!" he called out and Luffy jumped up.

"FOOD!" he shouted, his voice ringing across the ship and no doubt alerting everyone else to their dinner status. Luffy dashed off and Zoro followed behind at a much more leisurely pace. Nami and Usopp were already in the kitchen when Zoro walked in and Robin and Chopper followed behind him.

The table creaked from the weight of the food spread across the table and even Zoro had to admit that he was impressed. Not that he'd ever admit it to the shit chef. He sat down at the table next to Luffy and Chopper sat on his other side. On the other side of the table were Usopp, Nami, and Robin. Usopp and Chopper still looked wary of the woman but Nami seemed a bit more at ease. Those gemstones Robin had given her had really gone a long way in insuring Nami's favor, it seemed. Sanji, meanwhile, was torn between fawning over Nami and Robin, and keeping Luffy from attacking the food. Usopp and Chopper quickly moved on to talking about one of Usopp's latest inventions, while Robin and Nami were talking about books. Zoro, tired of the chef's annoying shouting, finally grabbed Luffy's arms to keep him in place until Sanji had gotten all of the food onto the table. Luffy grumbled and whined, but Zoro ignored it, just like he ignored the interested look in Nami's eye when she glanced over to see Zoro holding onto him. Annoying witch, Zoro thought as she shot him a sly glance.

Thankfully Sanji brought all the food out quickly and within minutes there was chaos in the kitchen as everyone dug in. Luffy, of course, inhaled his food like there was no tomorrow while those closest to him (Chopper and Zoro) fought to keep Luffy's wandering hands away from their plates. Zoro came close to putting his fork in Luffy's hand twice before he finally surrendered what remained of the food on his plate to Luffy who shot him a 'Thanks Zoro!' before eating that as well.

The distraction allowed Chopper to finish his food, and the reindeer sent Zoro a thankful look. On the other end of the table, Usopp had somehow joined in on the conversation between Usopp and Nami and the three were discussing… East Blue fairy tales?

Dismissing the strange topic, Zoro stood up and got some more alcohol from the fridge before leaning against the wall. He scanned the room as he drank. Everyone looked recharged from their few days of rest in Alabasta and if he hadn't been there with them, he wouldn't have guessed that they'd just spent the last week fighting a Shichibukai.

His eyes drifted over to Robin, who seemed completely at ease with a crew that had been her enemy just a few days prior. She met his gaze evenly and he looked away with a scowl on his face.

"Oi, oi, oi." Zoro heard from his side, and he just barely turned his head to see Sanji standing there glaring at him. "Don't give Robin-chwan such a dirty look you moss headed bastard!" He snapped.

"Ohh?" Zoro drew out the noise. "Are you sure that you're the one who should be talking about dirty looks? Perverted Cook."

"What did you say asshole?!"

The rest of the crew- sans Robin- ignored their fighting and carried on with their conversations, although Usopp started shouting too when one of Sanji's feet came to close to his head.

"Take it out of the kitchen already you assholes!" he screamed at them. When it looked like Usopp's shout hadn't gotten through to them, Nami sighed and stood up.

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" she shouted, slamming her hands down on the table. "Either fight somewhere else or SHUT UP!" her voice, coupled with the dark look in her eyes, succeeded where Usopp had failed. Zoro scoffed but turned away from Sanji, and Sanji immediately shouted,

"Of course Nami-swan!"

The rest of dinner was much more peaceful and before long the crew was clearing out of the kitchen, with the exception of Usopp, who had stayed behind to help clean up the kitchen. Since they were done sailing for the day, Nami had Chopper, Zoro, and Luffy deal with pulling up the sails and the anchor for the night. The process went smoothly- except for when Luffy was goofing off and nearly fell off the top of the mast. Nami returned to the women's bedroom soon after everything was done. Luffy quickly disappeared into the kitchen again- probably to try and steal some food- and Chopper went down to the men's room while Zoro laid down against the mast. He closed his eyes as he heard noise from the kitchen- Usopp and Sanji's shouts and Luffy's obnoxious laughter- but another sound make itself known.

He opened his eyes as he heard the click of heels against the wooden deck. Robin was leaning against the railing, her face turned towards the front of the ship and her eyes hidden by her bangs. A few minutes of silence passed between them as Zoro wondered why the hell she was out here with him. Finally she spoke,

"It's very strange on this ship. It's definitely one of the most relaxed pirate ships that I've ever been on." Her voice was smooth, giving no indication of her mood. "And everyone seems to have taken to my presence rather quickly." Now she turned to face him and there was a slight smirk on her face. "Well, almost everyone."

Zoro scowled at her and felt his hackles raise. She turned her head again and continued to speak. "I know that you're wary of me, and you have many reasons to be, but you don't have to worry." She shrugged. "I wouldn't hurt your crewmates. It would be against my best interests. You may not trust me but surely you can understand that much?"

Zoro didn't respond for a few minutes, annoyed at how he couldn't dispute her. Even without Cobra mentioning that she was the one who had given Luffy the antidote for Crocodile's poison, she really didn't seem to have a reason to want to hurt them- or at least, not a reason that Zoro could find. She didn't seem loyal to Crocodile in the slightest and didn't seem to hold any notions of avenging his defeat. It was true. She was an untrustworthy person but not an enemy at the moment.

Still, Zoro wouldn't give her the satisfaction of agreeing that she had a point, but she must have seen something shift in his glare. Without saying anything else she turned on her heel and walked back to the women's room.

Zoro watched her go and didn't close his eyes until she was out of his sight.

* * *

By this point, Zoro was used to being woken up in painful ways. Whether it was from one of the shit chef's kicks, one of Nami's punches, or even Luffy getting overly excited and jumping on him, about half of the time he was woken up in a strange way.

And today was no different.

Zoro rolled off of the couch and his head hit the wooden floor with a loud thud that was immediately echoed by similar thuds from the hammocks where the others slept.

"Owww," Luffy whined as he sat up. Or, tried to. Usopp was laying across his back, and Sanji and Chopper were on Usopp's.

"Oi, oi. What the heck was tha-"Sanji's snarl was cut off by another bump that had the group tumbling into the wall. Zoro grabbed the couch for balance as he stood up and hurried to the mast.

The other followed suit and before long everyone was up on the top deck, just in time to see what was ramming at their ship.

"What the hell is that?!" Zoro snarled when he saw the giant creature as it swam away from their ship. It was much too small to be a Sea King but too large to be a shark.

Robin, with a frown, said, "It looks like a whale. Although a rather small one."

"What do you mean by small? That thing's huge!" Usopp shouted from his position where he clung to the mast. "And if it keeps up ramming us then it's going to hurt Merry!"

"Like hell it will!" Luffy jumped up on the railing and started yelling at the shape. "Come back here you stupid whale! Leave Merry alone!"

The rest of the crew, sans Chopper and Robin, remembered the last time that Luffy had tried fighting a whale and they immediately started shouting at Luffy to get down from there.

"Stop Luffy- he's just scared!" Chopper piped up, looking over the side of the ship. "He's only doing this cause we're too close to his territory!" Chopper tried shouting at the whale to stop, saying that they would leave and that they didn't mean any hard, but the animal refused to listen and geared up to ram their ship again. Ignoring Chopper's shout, both Zoro and Sanji leapt into the air.

"Don't kill it- just scare it off!" Nami shouted at the two of them, and Zoro just grunted before pulling out just one of his swords. He attacked it with the blunt edge of his sword and Sanji's kick seemed to have less power as well. The whale let out a loud bellow, but it was knocked unconscious by their blows. Zoro and Sanji landed on its head and Sanji spun around to shout,

"Did you see how I saved you? Nami-swan! Robin-chwan?" Nami looked at him with a deadpanned expression while Robin was too busy staring at the whale.

"Cook-san, Swordsman-san, you should get off of there immediately." She called out before turning to Nami. "And we might want to start moving immediately."

"Huh? Why?" Usopp and Nami asked at the same time and Robin gestured to the whale.

"Because I'm sure that I've seen that type of whale before and if I'm right then this one is so small because it's a child. Which means that the mother shouldn't be too far behind." As if summoned by her words, a wall of water erupted just less than 50 feet away from their ship as a massive shape emerged. Everyone's jaw dropped as a giant eye blinked and swiveled in their direction.

"Awesome!" Luffy's voice broke through their stupor. He stared up at the whale with stars in his eyes. "Hey, hey! This one looks bigger than Lamboon!" he shouted with obvious glee.

"It's also about to be madder so MOVE!" Nami screeched at them, and the crew erupted into motion. Sanji and Zoro jumped off the baby whale as the same time that the mother seemed to notice it, and her ensuing cry was loud enough to have everyone clapping their hands over their ears. "Anchor! Sails! Helm! NOW!" Nami shouted again, desperate to make herself heard. Everyone scrambled.

Robin used her arms to undo the ropes tying the sails down, while Zoro and Luffy started pulling up the anchor. Chopper ran for the helm while Usopp and Sanji went for the storage room where the oars were. At that moment they just had to get out of the area as fast as possible and Nami began trying to get the ship pointed in the right direction. Once they had the oars out, with Sanji and Luffy on one and Usopp and Zoro on the other, they started rowing as quickly as they could. The whale mother, after seemingly assuring herself that her child wasn't seriously hurt, turned her attention back to the ship.

"Shit!" Nami shouted, clutching the wooden railing in a death grip. "If that thing eats us then we're done for!" They had only barely escaped Lamboon. She didn't need to tell the others to row faster and, luckily, they had a bit of a tail wind.

The monster sank under the waves, and Nami sank to her knees in fear of what might come next. Standing next to her, Robin just added in an entirely too calm voice. "At least, if she does try eating us then we'll die quickly. Either by drowning or being dissolved in stomach acids.

"Stop that!" Nami shouted at her with tears running down her face. Who the hell was so morbid in this kind of situation?

Robin ignored her and continued looking around. She glanced up and her eyes widened slightly. "Oh my."

Nami glanced up as well when a shadow fell over them and she was quickly learning that, amongst many things, Robin had a seriously bad habit of understating things, because this definitely wasn't an 'oh my' moment. It was an 'OH MY GOD- IS THAT A TAIL FIN' moment.

The fin, large enough to block out the light from the moon, loomed over them like an ominous shadow. Nami couldn't do anything more than shriek in terror as it started to descend. They'd be smashed by that thing!

On the lower deck the other four looked up when they heard Nami's scream and they also paled at the giant tail approaching them. It came down too quickly for them to do anything, but rather than smashing into them, it slapped the ocean behind them. Immediately the ship lurched backwards due to the displacement of water, and then the ship went shooting forward- nearly tipping over in the ensuring wave.

Nami, Chopper, and Usopp screamed as they clutched onto the nearest stable surface for dear life, while Robin had blossomed a dozen more arms to brace herself. Sanji and Zoro clung to their oars while Luffy just let out a yell of excitement. This was too much fun!

The Merry Go rode the wave for miles until its momentum died down and the ship returned to a somewhat stable and upright position. Nami, who was sure that she'd still be shaking tomorrow, refused to open her eyes and assumed that the lack of a watery death meant that they were ok.

Chopper, at one point had reverted back to his Brain Point form and he was collapsed again the Merry's helm. He only looked slightly better than Usopp, who had gone completely boneless on the lower deck. Zoro and Sanji looked rather green themselves but they prioritized looking over the ships railing- as if they could spot any more unwelcome company that night. Even Robin looked a bit queasy.

The only one who seemed excited about the current situation was Luffy, who was shouting about how cool the whale had been. Even Nami lacked the strength at the moment to tell him to shut it. Instead she took deep breaths until she could stand before declaring,

"That's it! I hate this damn ocean!" There were several grunts of agreement from the rest of the crew. She looked up at the stars and frowned. "Geez. And we were blasted so far off course." The log pose was still in her room though so she couldn't check just where it was pointing to now. Granted, she also wasn't sure that she wanted to deal with that at the moment anyways. So with a weary sigh, she ran her hand through her bangs before deciding that she was done for the night and that she'd figure out their new course in the morning.

She wasn't the only one who wanted to put that little fun adventure behind them as soon as possible. Sanji, Usopp, Chopper, and Zoro quickly followed her lead in retiring for the night until it was just Robin and Luffy left on deck.

Luffy, still full of energy from that encounter, looked disappointed at his crew mates wanting to go back to bed. He smiled when he saw that Robin was still out there with him. "Yo Robin! What 'cha looking at?" he mirrored her pose and looked up at the sky, although he didn't see anything interesting.

"I'm star gazing, I suppose." She said after a while. Luffy looked at her with wide eyes.

"Star gazing? Makino told me about that once! That means that you can see all the weird pictures in the sky, right?"

"Well I wouldn't call them 'weird pictures'," Robin chuckled. "But yes, I can see them. They are about 2 dozen that I know by heart. They're very helpful for navigating the sea at night."

Luffy nodded, even though he didn't really get it. Makino had tried showing him the different shapes in the past, but it had never made any sense to Luffy. Besides, all of the shapes and names were always to boring. He'd be interested once there was a meat constellation somewhere.

Luffy joined Robin on the upper deck and sat on the railing next to where she was leaning. If she was bothered by the sudden close proximity then she didn't say anything. Instead she pointed towards the sky.

"There is an easy one that I can show you. Do you see that star? The brightest one in the sky?" It was hard to tell which exactly was supposed to be the brightest star, but he had a good idea as to which one she was talking about, so he nodded anyways. "It's called Polaris, or the North Star." She lowered her arm and leaned with one hand cupping her chin. "Supposedly its position never moves and so it's one of the easiest stars to track."

"Huh? Really?"

Robin nodded and started explaining a little more about the star, and stars in general. Luffy nodded along, even though he didn't get most of it. Stars were still a mystery to him after all, but he liked the way that Robin explained stuff. It sounded really smart so it must have been right.

He grinned at her. "Robin, you're so smart!" he said with a slight laugh.

She paused mid-explanation and looked at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before her expression settled. There was something uneasy in her gaze- untrusting- but before Luffy could ask about it, she let out an amused huff. "You really are quite honest, Captain-san." Almost painfully so compared to most of her previous Captains.

Luffy looked surprised by her comment before asking, "Why wouldn't I be?" which made Robin laugh again, although he wasn't sure why. She thought that he might understand one day if he survived for long enough in this world. Pirates, after all, weren't usually honest people, and the ones that were usually couldn't survive as pirates. On the other hand, she wasn't sure that she ever wanted that honesty to fade. It was…nice.

Immediately realizing the bit of sentimentality that she'd allowed to slip into her thoughts, Robin squashed it ruthlessly. She couldn't afforded to get attached to these people. After all, it wouldn't be long before she'd have to leave them for some reason or another. It was better to remain detached.

Luffy, meanwhile, wasn't sure about what was running through Robin's head, but he got the vague gut feeling that it wasn't good and he frowned. Robin was his Nakama now and he wanted her to feel comfortable around him, but it was quickly becoming apparent, even to him, how much more closed off she was as compared to the rest of his crew. Still, he didn't push it tonight and Robin quickly resumed smiling, even though it was colder than it had been before.

"If you'll excuse me Captain-san, I'll be heading up to the crow's nest now. I think that I'd like the watch the stars for a little longer." She said with a slight tilt of her head.

"Ah sure." Luffy said with a nod. "I'll see you tomorrow then Robin!" he smiled at her as she started to climb the mast to the crow's nest. With nothing else to do and no one else to talk to, Luffy resigned himself to heading below deck again.

He climbed down the ladder and heard the snores from his Nakama already. Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper were already in their hammocks, but Luffy frowned at his. He wanted to change up his sleeping habit a little. So he headed for the couch instead. Although Zoro liked sleeping there the most, sometimes Zoro let Luffy sleep with him. Luffy just hoped that tonight would be one of those nights.

He walked over to the couch as quietly as he could before tripping over Usopp's discarded slingshot about halfway there, and hitting the wooden floor with a thud. There was a groan from over near the hammocks and Sanji whispered, "Goddammit Luffy."

"Ah, sorry sorry." Luffy said in Sanji's direction but he stopped when he felt hands under his armpits lifting him up. "Yo Zoro!" he said as quietly as he could- which wasn't even quiet at all. "Let me sleep with you tonight."

Zoro's eyes were hard to see in the darkness but Luffy heard him sigh. "Luffy just sleep in your hammock already."

"No!" Luffy huffed. "I wanna sleep on the couch with Zoro. Let me. Captain's order."

"Luffy-"

"Zoro for the love of God just let him." Usopp groaned from his hammock. It seemed that even having his pillow over his head did nothing to tune out Luffy's whining.

"Yeah shitty Marimo. Be useful for once."

"Zoro please."

Sanji and Chopper chipped in as well and Zoro scowled at the three of them, even if they couldn't see him. "Fine fine." He sighed. If it hadn't been so dark in the cabin then any of them might have seen the faint color that dusted his cheeks at the acceptance of his Captain's stubbornness. They didn't see it though because Roronoa Zoro didn't blush dammit.

Instead he just laid down on the couch and just let Luffy flop down on top of him. He knew that Luffy would probably just end up elbowing him off the couch at some point, but there was nothing to be done at this point. Luffy, as selfish as always, had gotten his way. Luffy covered Zoro like a blanket and Zoro pulled off his straw hat so that he could place it on the low table next to them. After a pause, he then placed his hand on Luffy's shoulders. Not holding him, but it was something close. Zoro heard the quiet 'thanks Zoro' before he fell asleep again.

* * *

Nico Robin sat in the crow's nest of the Merry Go and took in the view. The ocean below her was a calm inky blue-black but above her was another, more interesting ocean. The whites and blues and reds of the stars dotted the pure black night sky and Robin could only stare at the vastness of it all. She knew the names of some of the visible constellations off the top of her head, but there seemed to be too many to count at the moment.

There was a noticeable chill to the air, but it was still warm enough that she couldn't see her breath, although there were goosebumps running up her arms and neck. The blanket that was stashed in the crow's nest kept the weather from being too much of a bother.

She still couldn't believe it, honestly. That she'd made it out of Alabasta alive. Unfortunately it was without any additional knowledge of the Rio Poneglyph, but all the same she was still alive.

There was a hollow ache in her chest and she brushed a hand over the spot where Crocodile's hook had pierced her, although most of the pain had faded over the last few days. Crocodile had missed her heart- no doubt looking to give her a slow and painful death. One she'd only escaped by the skin of her teeth.

But, despite the nearly successful attempt to kill her, even now Robin couldn't say that she felt any anger towards the man. Even at the best of times Crocodile had never been her friend and they had barely been allies. She still remembered his voice, coming in tandem with the pain of his hook piercing her chest. She remembered the gloating- that her betrayal hadn't hurt him because he'd never trusted her from the start.

It was a sentiment that she understood all too well. After all, how long had it been since she had trusted another person herself?

She plucked at the blanket again. It looked like it had some age to it as its plaid pattern was a bit faded and it smelled a little but she couldn't complain. It was warm.

With a sigh, she tipped her head back towards the sky. This crew was a different than the ones she'd dealt with before. Not only had their Captain accepted her request to join without the slightest bit of hesitation, but the rest of the crew also seemed remarkably trusting towards a person who had been their enemy just days before. Even the swordsman, who made his distrust of her clear, still let her do as she pleased aboard the ship. To her it seemed dangerously trusting.

Not that she would complain. She'd always felt better when she'd had a bit of freedom- one of the reasons that she hadn't minded working for Crocodile- so as long as that didn't change, then she wouldn't mind staying with this group for a while.

Letting her thoughts drift again, Robin remained sitting in the crow's nest for the rest of the night.

* * *

Luffy sat on the figurehead of the Going Merry a few hours later, singing an off key drinking song under his breath. It was still early in the morning- the sun had only half risen, and was a bright half circle off in the distance- so he knew he'd get scolded if he was too loud; especially after the chaos of last night. The only other person awake on the ship at the moment was Sanji, who had gone into the kitchen a little while ago to make breakfast. As much as Luffy wanted to make his way over to the kitchen to get a taste of it, even he realized that it was too early in the morning to deal with Sanji's wrath. Plus sometimes it was just better to enjoy early mornings like this. There had been plenty of times where he'd watched the same view with Ace, both of them looking towards the horizon and thinking of their future dreams.

One hand reached up to grab the brim of his hat, gently touching the place where Nami had sewn in the little white card that Ace had given him. He still wasn't quite sure what it was for- it was a mystery card after all- but since Ace had given it to him, he would hold on to it.

The quiet click of heels on wood alerted him to the presence of someone on the deck behind him, and Luffy craned his head around to see Robin approaching him, a small but blank smile on her face. Luffy leaned back until he was laying on Merry's head and gave her an upside down grin.

"Yo Robin! What's up?" She stopped a few feet away from him and leaned against the ship's railing.

"Good morning Captain-san. I thought that that was your voice that I heard."

Luffy frowned at her before shooting a nervous look towards the lower deck where the Nami's room was. "Shit- was I being too loud?"

Robin shook her head. "Not at all. I just happened to be awake to hear it." She pointed up. "I've been in the Crow's Nest for a while now."

"Oh really?" Luffy blinked at her in surprise. "I didn't notice at all. That's good though," he sighed. "Cause Nami can be really scary sometimes. Oh!" His hat, which hadn't been hanging from the string around his neck, finally fell off his head and onto the deck.

Before he could reach for it, there was a slight popping sound and an arm bloomed out of the wooden deck and tossed the hat up to another arm that had bloomed next to his head. The second hand placed the hat on top of his face- obscuring his vision.

"Thanks Robin!" he said with a chipper voice as he sat up and caught his hat before wedging it back onto his head. When he turned around to look back at her, Robin was giving him that weird stare again. He met her gaze evenly. Even if he knew that she was studying him- sizing him up like an opponent before a fight almost- he had no idea why, but it just seemed to be something that she did.

Luffy broke eye contact first and looked up towards the crow's nest before asking, "Did you sleep up there? Did Nami not let you sleep in her room? You can sleep in our room if you want to." Zoro slept on the couch in there as much as he did his own bed, so he probably wouldn't care if Robin took over his hammock instead. Sanji would probably be happy about it too.

Robin stopped giving him the weird stare and smiled instead. "I appreciate the offer Captain-san, but I'm fine. I just wanted to spend the night in somewhere more…" she looked to the side. "Open. It's more comfortable for me."

"Ah- that's good then." Luffy said with a nod. Robin was his Nakama now, and even if he didn't fully understand her, as long as she was comfortable then he didn't mind what she did or where she slept.

"I feel like I should ask you a question though, Captain-san." Robin said, drawing his attention back to her. "You've been out here for a while. Could I ask why? You don't exactly strike me as the type who rises early."

Luffy chuckled and shook his head. "Nope- not at all. Sometimes I wake up early, but it depends." Sanji was usually the early riser in the crew. And if not him then it would be Nami- always up and ready to keep the ship moving on the right path. The only person they could consistently count on sleeping in late was Zoro, who could sleep through just about anything. Luffy, on the other hand, just kind of woke up whenever he woke up. Sometimes it was early in the morning on his own, and other times it was to Nami's voice- shouting some order or another at him.

"But the view like this is pretty great ain't it?" he asked Robin, pointing out the sunrise in front of them. The brilliant reds and yellows of the sun dyed the surface of the distant water various shades of dark blue and purple. The sky itself was shades of pink and purple. He couldn't explain why he liked watching it sometimes, but it filled him with a nice sort of energy. The rising sun didn't have the same excitement as the boundless sea but it was still pretty cool.

Robin didn't respond, but there was a smile on her face so he took it as a good sign and went back to his sun watching. After a minute or so of silence, the drinking song came back into his head and he started singing it again, his voice joined by the bump of waves against the side of the ship and the cry of early morning birds over head-

And then by a softer, more feminine voice. Luffy's voice trailed off in surprise and he looked back to see Robin singing the part that he had left off at. She raised an eyebrow at him for stopping, and he grinned at her before finishing the rest of the verse together.

"Robin! I didn't know that you knew drinking songs!" Luffy laughed while Robin just said,

"Well, I am a pirate." She moved closer so that she was by the Merry's head. "Although I'm a bit surprised that you know that one. It's a bit old."

Luffy leaned back onto his hands and shrugged. "It's one of the ones that Shanks used to sing. Somehow it just stuck in my head." It helped that there would usually be a patron or two drunk enough at Makino's to engage in drinking songs whenever he would visit. Since there were so few people in Fuchsia under the age of 30, most of the songs that people sang were pretty old.

They fell silent again after that until Sanji- probably glancing out of the window and spotting Robin- spun out onto the deck with a cup of coffee in hand. "For you Robin-chwan!" He shouted as he stopped in front of her, getting down on one knee to hold out the cup. "It's black, but if you need sugar or milk, then just let me know."

Robin accepted the cup with a slight smile. "Black is fine for me Cook-san." She said, and Sanji immediately swooned at the nickname.

"Hey Sanji- what about me?" Luffy piped up before Sanji could make some sort of outlandish declaration. "I want something too!"

Sanji, without even glancing in Luffy's direction, stood up and turned back towards the kitchen. "Hell no." he tossed over his shoulder. "Wait until breakfast like the rest of the morons."

Luffy watched him go and glared at Sanji until the cook disappeared into the kitchen. "Ahh! Sanji's so stingy!" he huffed, looking to Robin for support.

The dark haired woman just smiled before offering out her cup. "Indeed. Would you like some of my coffee Captain-san?" she asked and Luffy grinned at the offer.

"Nah." He leaned back on Merry's head. "It's fine. Coffee tastes weird when it's just black anyways." Which didn't mean that he wouldn't drink it. He just liked adding a lot of stuff into his- even if it got him looks that ranged from weirded out to horrified at the amounts of sugar and cream added in.

One by one, the other members of the crew started to wake up as well. Nami came out first, stretching her arms high up over her head and taking in the early morning weather. "Ahh, this weather is so nice." She hummed before making her way to the kitchen. Once she disappeared through the door, the two of them could hear Sanji's over the top declarations of love for the navigator before the sound dropped off, probably because Nami had snapped at him to shut up.

The rest of the crew- sans Zoro- emerged soon after that. Usopp and Chopper went to the kitchen as well, since they weren't banned from it like Luffy was. Lucky guys…

* * *

When Zoro finally emerged it was after breakfast and Nami was still in the kitchen, planning out their next route. Zoro yawned and made his way into the kitchen. Nami immediately cut Sanji off before he could scold Zoro about being late to breakfast before gesturing to a plate left on the table. "Eat that."

Zoro looked at the plate of food in surprise. "Oh? Something that Luffy hasn't eaten already? How strange."

Nami shrugged. "Luffy was a bit more willing to just leave it alone when I made it clear that it was for you. I wonder why that is?" she asked with a sly look in her eyes. She didn't mention that keeping food from Luffy had still been a struggle. Sanji, recognizing her tone, snickered from his place at the stove. "How's that love life of yours going Zoro-kun?" she asked, ignoring Zoro's scowl. The slight shade of red on his face was much more interesting.

"Didn't you know Nami-swan?" Sanji asked in a coy tone before Zoro could tell her to shut up. "Last night Luffy and the Marimo slept together."

"Oh ho? How scandalous." Nami teased.

Zoro growled at the both of them before shoving food in his mouth in lieu of responding. He didn't know if he was more annoyed at the two of them bringing it up or more annoyed that he couldn't outright refute them.

In the beginning his feelings for Luffy had been more of a teasing point between him and Nami. It had started quickly after Nami had met Zoro and Luffy. She'd simply noted how loyal Zoro seemed to be to a man that he'd known for such a short amount of time. Of course she'd realized that that was just the type of person that Zoro was- dangerously loyal to those who he thought deserved it- but it had been something fun to tease him with. After all, it wasn't every day that someone could make fun of the infamous, and demonic, 'pirate hunter'. And yet, it had become less and less of a joke over time as his feelings of loyalty and respect blurred. Nami had probably noticed the change because she'd seen more of what he was like in the beginning. As to how the shit cook had figured it out- Zoro really had no clue since the guy himself was pretty hopeless with love.

Still, the two of them seemed to at least care enough that they didn't tease Zoro about it when they were anywhere that Luffy, or their other crewmates, could hear. At the moment Luffy was fishing with Usopp and Chopper, so they'd be busy for a while. Robin was… elsewhere, which meant that it was free game for the two of them.

Zoro set his jaw and just decided to ignore the two of them gossiping like fishwives. When he was done with his food, he grabbed some booze, which made it even easier to ignore them.

Before too long, the needle on Nami's log pose straightened out and the weather got smoother as they entered a new island's climate. About an hour, and several fish from the Luffy-Usopp-Chopper trio, later, they heard Luffy's shouts that the next island was in sight.

The rest of the crew came outside to see the island and Usopp climbed up to the crow's nest with his binoculars. The island looked like a spring or Summer Island as the green of the trees was easy to see from where they were. There were also tons of buildings dotting the island and one white building stood out in particular, even in the distance.

"Hey Usopp, is that white building what I think it is?" Sanji called out to him, and Usopp nodded.

"Seems like it." He put his binoculars down and looked at Luffy especially. "That's a marine base alright. Which means stay out of trouble Luffy!"

"Alright alright!" Luffy shouted back in way that definitely meant that he wasn't listening to Usopp's words. Instead his head was already full of future adventures. Usopp sighed before face palming because this careless guy was definitely going to get them all in trouble…again.

Unfortunately there was nothing to be done about Luffy's Luffy-ness, but Nami wasn't going to go down without a fight. Once they had the ship in a safe place, with the flag hidden despite Luffy's complaining about how it wasn't 'right', Nami grabbed Luffy before he could run off the ship.

"Seriously Luffy," she pulled his nose to make sure that she had his attention. "After that mess in Alabasta I want to avoid trouble as much as possible so don't run around carelessly!" she punctuated her last words with vicious tugs of his nose before she let go and his nose snapped back to his face. "Got it?"

Luffy rubbed at his nose and nodded, but Nami knew that the moment he looked away her warning had been forgotten. Which was… frustrating. The guy had a bounty on his head and yet he was still so careless. At least Nami didn't have to tell Robin to behave.

She didn't let herself dwell on it and instead she split up the money into an allowance for the crew. Usopp and Sanji got a little more for any repairs that the Merry Go might need, and the kitchen respectively, and everyone quickly went on their own ways once they reached the town.

* * *

Half an island away, in the marine base, Captain Tamayo sat at her desk, absolutely fuming. She glared around at her surroundings. Everything at this ratty old base was miles below her usual standards and it had her yearning for her old base again- and also conveniently forgetting how many times she'd complained about it over there too.

By an unbiased person's standards, the marine base of White Wells Island wasn't totally shabby. It was older and in need of some renovation- especially in the holding cells- but it did its job well. A few decades ago, when the island had been at its peak of economic success- just before the pirate age- the marine base on the island had also been impressive. Nowadays, when traffic to the island had slowed and there had been a need for more marines in other places, the base had lost most of its power and standing.

And now she was here, serving out her punishment.

Tamayo huffed again and scowled at her paperwork before putting it to the side where her secretary would pick it up. She still couldn't believe her punishment- just for using her devil fruit powers to better the marine base on her last island. Her fruit, the Obey Obey Fruit, allowed her to control others to varying degrees and she had used it on many pirates over the last few years, either weakening them or controlling them entirely so that she could properly arrest them. At first she had gotten a good reputation out of it, but that had changed recently. So what if she'd also been using her ability on the local mayor? The stubborn fool had gotten stingy in how he'd been paying the marines on the island after all. He was too busy funneling money into his re-election campaigns to properly pay the men and women who'd been stationed there to protect them from pirates.

When her… indiscretions had been discovered, the only thing that kept her from being dishonorably discharged was that she had been using her powers in a way that still benefitted the marines. Although there were many who claimed that her actions had been more pirate-like than marine, there were enough higher ups who had dealt with the same issues to at least understand her actions, but still wholeheartly disagreed.

Which is why she was simply moved to this out of the way place a few days ago rather than being fired outright. They had had to make an example out of her. That didn't mean that she had to be happy about it! She brushed her dark green bangs out of her face and scribbled her signature on a few more sheets before glaring at the stern faced man in the corner. He'd been sent to watch over her after her trial to insure that she was only using her powers on pirates. It was super annoying and it made her feel like a child! The man- Clarke- had barely even spoken to her in the last few days that he'd been there, instead just hovering like a creepy shadow.

She continued to ignore him and plow through her paperwork as the hours ticked by. After some time one of her subordinates came through the door with the week's bounty posters in hand. Her scowled deepened as she saw them. Honestly, there seemed to be more and more posters popping up every week. More and more of these scoundrels coming onto the scene. She felt the weight of the 'justice' kanji weighing on her back and her past digressions aside, she was still a marine, and she'd catch every pirate that came through this way.

"Let me see those." She held out her hand for the papers before flipping through them quickly. Many of the faces were new, with bounties ranging from 10 million to 50 million and she recognized a few older faces too with updated bounties. She bit her lip as she progressed until she got to the bottom of the pile. "100 million?" she gasped, looking at the second to last poster. The bounty itself wasn't surprising seeing as she'd seen plenty of pirates with high bounties before, but usually they were more established pirates. Ones who had been in the game for years. The guy in this ridiculously chipper poster- seriously, was this the only good photo that they had? - still looked like a child.

"Straw hat Luffy?" the name sounded vaguely familiar and she looked up to see the man who'd brought her the posters. "What did he do? Why is his bounty so high?"

"They believe that he was involved in the revolution in Alabasta, Ma'am!" the man said, his posture stiff. Tamayo nodded at the explanation. She remembered hearing about the bust made by another marine- Smoker- and the resulting arrest of the Shichibukai Crocodile. She put the poster down. "Is this his first bounty?"

The man shook his head. "No Ma'am. Just last week he had a bounty of 30 million."

"30 million?" Tamayo frowned and glanced down again. "That's quite the jump."

"Well, his bounty is also noticeable because he's a pirate from the East Blue. The most peaceful sea." Tamayo startled at the voice, one that she'd never heard before. She looked at the man in the corner in shock- so he could speak it seemed. Clarke's voice had a detached feeling to it as he stated the facts. The two other marines watched to see if he'd say more, but he seemed to be done with that.

Tamayo nodded after a few seconds, digesting the information. "Pirates these days." She muttered before her eyes widened. "Wait- if he was at Alabasta then there's the chance of him landing on our island at some point." She looked back to the other marine who snapped to attention. "Tell everyone to stay on their guard. If anyone so much as sees a straw hat then let me know!" The lower ranked marine snapped to attention and left the room to that he could spread the word.

Tamayo huffed and leaned back in her chair, looking down at the paper in front of her. She couldn't deny the flair of excitement in her gut. Although she was disgraced for now, if she could get capture a 100 million pirate, then she could definitely put herself in a better place with her superiors. Maybe even get moved to a better post.

"Captain," Clarke spoke from his corner again. "There's a last poster that you haven't looked at." He pointed to her desk and she looked down to see the last face, glaring up at her.

"'Pirate Hunter' Roronoa Zoro, worth 60 million." Another high bounty. She paused and then squinted at the page. "Wait, this guy seems vaguely familiar as well."

"That's because he used to be a bounty hunter." Came Clarke's addition.

Tamayo took in the information before looking at the poster again. "Wait- bounty hunter? _Why the hell is he a pirate now?!"_

* * *

At the same moment Robin walked through town with the little reindeer doctor by her side. Although she'd planned on just walking around by herself, she'd ran into Chopper at a bookstore, where he'd been looking through medical texts in his Heavy Point form. Since she had ended up purchasing books from the same store, the two of them had left together and now they were taking in the local scenery.

The island was rather small but quaint. The houses were stacked upon each other and most were painted pastel shades of pink and yellow and blue.

All around them, people were hanging up red, pink, and white decorations, from hearts to streamers to other cutesy pieces.

"I wonder what's happening around here?" Chopper asked, pinching his nose as they walked past an older woman selling perfume on the street side. "It looks like some sort of romantic celebration." he trailed off.

Robin's gaze scanned the crowd as well. Even without all of the gaudy decorations, such a thing would have been obvious. Not only was everything in shades of pink and red, but there were couples everywhere, holding hands, laughing together and tying red strings around themselves and their partners. At the last sign she smiled as the idea occurred to her.

"Actually, I believe that I've seen this sort of festival before Doctor-san." She said with a smile. "It's quite popular on some other Grand Line islands. Some parts of Alabasta included." She rubbed at her chin with one hand. "It's been a while since I've heard the legend and there are a few variations of it as well, but the gist of it is that there was once a pair of lovers who were forbidden from seeing each other. Vowing that they wouldn't let their families decide their fate, they agreed to meet up at the edge of their island so that they could find a boat and escape from their families. The lovers, upon finding each other, were so distracted that they forgot to leave immediately and they were soon found by their families. Realizing that they would be separated for good this time, one of them took a hair ribbon- colored as red as blood- and tied it around their fingers, declaring that this would connect them and insure that they would be able to find each other again one day. No matter what." She looked at Chopper out of the corner of her eyes. The reindeer looked fully engrossed in the story and she smiled.

"According to the general legend they were then separated until the day that they both died, but their red string kept their souls connected after death. Of course in other versions they met a more grisly death either at the hands of their angry families, or by throwing themselves off of the cliffs surrounding their island." Chopper squeaked and his eyes widened in horror, so she added. "However, they all seem to agree that the two lovers found peace with each other after death. In many places the tale is considered quite romantic." She chuckled. "I'm a little surprised that you haven't heard of it."

Chopper averted his eyes and scratched at his cheek. "Ah, well I wasn't able to hear any of those sorts of stories when I was younger." Reindeer didn't have stories and neither the Doctor nor Doctorine had been ones for telling those sorts of stories. Doctor usually preferred the hopeful ones like the cherry blossom tale while Doctorine preferred gory horror stories; usually about patients who wouldn't be good little boys and girls for her.

Robin, noticing his discomfort, paused and looked away. She had no idea what he was thinking but the look of sadness and longing that had crossed his face for a few moments left her feeling uncomfortable. "For what it's worth, I never hear those sorts of tales either as a child. They seem to be one of those things that I picked up as an adult." She said with a wry grin. She pretended not to see the interested expression on Chopper's face and focused on asking herself why exactly she had told him that at all. While it didn't come close to describing the whole situation, it was still definitely closer to the truth than she usually preferred things to be.

Chopper, it seemed, had a bit of tact because he moved on to easier conversations from there. It was cute seeing his enthusiasm and seeing how excited he seemed to be for the festival. Not because he was excited in romance, he'd told her, but because parties and celebrations were also a new thing for him. She didn't tell him that it was the same for her.

They continued to walk and talk until Robin saw a flash of white. Without pausing she ducked into an alleyway and Chopper started to ask where she was going until she placed a finger against her lips. Chopper quickly followed after her in silence this time before he saw who she had seen. A pair of marines passed the alley way that they were in. They were low ranking based on their outfits, but Robin still watched them with sharp eyes until they passed. Then she let out an exhale and left the alley like she hadn't been there in the first place.

"Whoa, I had almost forgotten that this place was a marine base." Chopper said quietly as he followed behind her. He had also forgotten that Robin was a woman with a high bounty so it made sense that she'd be more careful around the marines. He could only imagine how careful Luffy wasn't being. With a sigh at the thought of his friend, Chopper continued walking in silence. When he looked at Robin again he noticed just the slightest line of tension in her shoulders. Just barely noticeable. Had those marines made her _that_ nervous? She usually seemed so aloof to Chopper, but he didn't rule the idea out immediately. He also didn't know what he could do to make any of that tension, or this heavy mood, disappear so he asked quietly,

"Hey Robin?" a slight incline of her head towards his was his only sign that she'd heard. "If you'd like, then we could try and go to another bookstore. Um, if you wanted to." He quickly backtracked. Robin stopped to look at him with her slightly disconcerting stare and Chopper was sure that she'd refuse. That's why he was surprised when a small smile stole over her face.

"That sounds nice Doctor-san."

* * *

In another part of the city Usopp and Sanji had run into Luffy and they were busy trying to keep their Captain out of trouble, to a varying degree of success. Usopp had only managed to distract him by explaining some of the intricacies of the festival that was being set up around them. They'd had a similar festival on Syrup Island, although he'd never been brave enough to ask Kaya to do any of the ribbon tying with him. He was also adding a bit of spice to the tale to keep Luffy interested, although Sanji would occasionally snort at some of the outlandish details that he would throw in. But Luffy was happy and there was a small smile on Sanji's face so Usopp counted it as a victory.

No one in the group noticed the casually dressed marine watching them with a camera from around the corner. He took a few pictures to insure that he had the right target but had to quickly throw himself around the corner so that the blond one didn't see him. The man's head had whipped around the corner so quickly that the marine was sure that he'd been spotted. Instead he just heard the man shouting at a pretty red head instead. Trailing behind the woman was a man with a scary face and light green hair, which was immediately recognizable from his wanted poster.

The marine watched the group interact in something akin to horror. He'd been assigned on this base as his first job, just a few weeks and now there were two pirates with high bounties on the island?! Making sure to keep out of sight, the marine continued creeping backwards.

He had to go and tell Captain Tamayo!

* * *

Less than an hour later the straw hats had all returned to the ship and they sat gathered around the table. The topic of discussion was today's festival.

"I want to go!" Luffy said firmly, slamming his hand down on the table for emphasis. "It sounds like it's gonna be fun!"

Next to him Chopper also piped up in agreement. "Yeah! I've never been to this sort of thing before." His ears twitched in excitement.

On the opposition's side, Nami stood firm. "Luffy I'm telling you- this is a bad idea! There's a marine base on this island for God's sake! Plus it's not a very large island so the chances of us being seen will increase even more!" she looked over at Chopper. "Besides Chopper, you've seen parties before and this festival won't be anything more than a big party. It's fine if you miss this one." She said, willing her heart to not melt at the sad expression on Chopper's face. She was glad when Usopp backed her up.

"Yeah- don't forget that we narrowly avoided Smoker and his guys in Alabasta. What if there's someone as scary strong as him on this island?" he shivered at the possibility before realizing his error. "Or-or not!" he tried, but Zoro and Luffy already had their 'I want to fight strong people' faces on.

"Then I want to stay even more!" Luffy crowed. "It's decided! Let's stay!"

"Oi, rubber piece of shit- are you even listening to Nami's point here?" Sanji snapped from over at the stove.

"Yeah, yeah but Sanji! Doesn't this festival sound fun?"

Sanji's impulse was so say no, but then he thought about all the legend behind the festival and all of the beautiful ladies who would be looking for love tonight. "Oh- well it might not be too bad to stay for a while." He glanced at Nami and Nami sighed as her last surefire ally defected to the other side. And if Sanji and Zoro were leaning towards 'yes' then Usopp was sure to sway too; the traitor.

"Do you have any feelings about this Robin?" she asked, more out of curtesy then anything else.

"I wouldn't mind staying or leaving." Robin responded with another blank smile. "I think I'll side with whatever the Captain decides to do." Nami, too tired to feel betrayed now, sighed.

"I guess that's it then."

* * *

It was an hour later and people started to put lights out everywhere. Lanterns, with pink and red glass, were hung outside of windows and everyone in town seemed to wear at least one red thing. There were even a few people walking around in the older traditional wear of the island. The sappy romantic music started up early and the street was full of people laughing and dancing and having a good time. But that wasn't what drew Luffy's attention- well the music did, but more important was all of the food.

Food stands were set up along the street and the smell of fried food was heavy in the air. There were stands selling heart shaped dough balls, covered in a light glaze, stands selling cookies and small cakes, and even better, there were stands selling meat.

Luffy let out a happy shout once he saw the nearest meat selling stand, and he dragged along his appointed guardian for the night. "Come on- let's go Zoro!" He shouted at the swordsman behind him, but Zoro refused to go above a leisurely pace. He was still fuming a little at the navigator's tone as she'd assigned him to watch over Luffy for the night.

"It's a romantic festival- just think of it as an opportunity." She'd said once the two of them were out of earshot of the rest of the crew.

Even now his ears burned a little at the implication. Nosey witch.

"Zoro! Stop glaring into space already. Look!" Luffy said before shoving a piece of food at him. Zoro blinked a few times at the kabob, before taking it. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Luffy already had a few kabob skewers sticking out of his mouth. How he'd managed to eat them too quickly without eating the sticks too- which he'd seen him do before- was actually amazing.

Luffy pulled him from stall to stall, spending most of the money that Nami had given them on food, which was to be expected. What he hadn't expected was how often Luffy bought food for him as well. Although his Captain definitely had moments of charity, they rarely involved food. Luffy still ate much more than he did but Zoro appreciated the gesture behind it.

At the moment, Luffy ate a meat bun as he walked- one that had been dyed pink- and Zoro noticed a spot of meat on his cheek. Now, it would have surprised a lot of people to hear, but Luffy's face usually stayed pretty clean when he ate. Not because he wasn't a messy eater, but because his mouth was like a black hole and it was rare that any food ever escaped it. Without thinking about it much he grabbed Luffy by the chin and drew them both to a stop. He ignored the people that had to stop behind them or move around them.

"Zoro?" Luffy asked, clearing confused. Zoro ignored his voice as he brought the thumb up on his other hand to swipe at the bite of meat on his cheek.

"Stop eating so quickly." He admonished halfheartedly. "You're getting food everywhere. It's a waste." He was about to just wipe the mess off on the side of his pants when Luffy grabbed his wrist in return.

Luffy frowned at the food on Zoro's thumb before saying, "No it's not." He leaned forward without hesitation and took Zoro's thumb into his mouth. Zoro's body froze up at the contact and his breath stuttered out to a wheeze. The surge of emotion, a distant part of himself jumped up to say, was fear because he'd seen what happened to things that came too close to Luffy's mouth. It wasn't farfetched to think that someone could lose a limb that way. But-

But that would have been a lie- for the most part at least. Instead the gesture brought to mind things that he shouldn't have been thinking about- especially not when it concerned his Captain. Even when Luffy let go of his thumb with a 'pop', Zoro still couldn't move.

"Zoro? What's wrong?" Zoro blinked a few times at his Captain's voice before realizing that they were still in the middle of the street. He looked down to see that Luffy was frowning at him again. "You're acting kinda weird…"

Zoro shook his head and wiped his wet thumb off of his pants. "It's nothing." He grumbled.

"Really? Cause you're kinda red. Are you sick Zoro?"

With a sigh Zoro dragged his hand down his cheeks, hating the annoying show of emotions. "Of course not. I said that I was fine." Luffy didn't look totally convinced but he shrugged again and grinned.

"Ok then- come on Zoro. Let's go get some more stuff." He said before shoving the rest of the meat bun into his mouth. His cheeks puffed up like a squirrel's and Zoro sighed at the gesture. While his Captain was all kinds of unpredictable, at least his appetite would always be easy to predict. Zoro took a deep breath and with his emotions in better check, he followed Luffy to the nearest food stall.

* * *

Less than a mile away, Tamayo laid in wait. She was dressing in a more casual red dress and her hair was tied up like many of the other women at the festival since she needed to blend in. She stood on the balcony of a two story building that gave her a good vantage point on the rest of the street. A den den mushi sat on the table next to her as she waited for news from her men scattered around the island. They were looking for where the pirates had docked their ship, or for the pirates themselves. From what she'd heard so far, no ships had been spotted leaving the island, pirate or otherwise, so the Straw Hats were still on the island.

She glanced back at the wanted poster in her hand before scanning the other faces in the area. Straw Hat didn't really have too many distinguishing features besides that scar under his eye and that hat of his so she had to be careful when looking around. She planned to use her powers on him, but it wouldn't do to slip up and use them on the wrong person. Her superiors definitely wouldn't be so lenient the second time.

She glanced to the side to see her new bodyguard. Clarke, thankfully, had also dressed down for the occasion in a red and white striped shirt, but his usual dark expression, accented by a heavy mustache and brow, seemed too heavy for what was supposed to be a light hearted celebration. Honestly, if she sent the man out into the crowd by himself then he would have stood out just by virtue of his expression alone. So, she ignored him and went back to watching and waiting.

After a few more minutes the snail on the table unfurled itself and let out a ring. She picked up the shell before asking, "What news do you have?"

"Ma'am! We've spotted Straw Hat by the corner of 7th and Roseberry!" Which was only a few streets over from where she was now. "He's heading your way and he's being accompanied by Roronoa!"

"Understood. I'll be on the look-out for them then." She said before sending the snail into sleep mode again. There was already a crowd of people gathered in the area to hear the music and from this point she'd be able to see him before he'd see her. She waited for ten more minutes before finally spotting a straw hat in the crowd. "Clarke." She called before gesturing to the figure, who was indeed accompanied by another man with green hair. She heard Clarke move closer to her before she gestured to the man in question. "I believe that that is Straw Hat Luffy." She bit her lip and swallowed her pride before asking the next part. "I'm requesting permission to go after him and use my abilities." It was grating to have to ask to use her own abilities but she did what she had to.

"How so?"

"I'll need to get close to hypnotize him." She shrugged. "If it turns out that I have the wrong man then I'll immediately stop using my ability."

"And if it is him?"

"Then I'll get him out of the area without causing a fuss." She paused before adding. "I'd like to try and capture Roronoa as well, but I won't get greedy." The unfortunate thing about the Obey Obey fruit was that it because less powerful with the number of people that she controlled. To bring a 100 million bounty pirate into custody, she'd no doubt need to use her powers on him alone.

While she didn't expect Clarke to say no to her plan, after all she _was_ a skilled _marine Captain_ , she was surprised at how quickly he nodded. "Sounds acceptable." He stopped to take something out of his pocket before handing it to her. She held out her hand and he dropped a small den den mushi into her palm. "If you can get Straw Hat away from the Pirate Hunter then call me and we'll regroup."

She nodded and took the snail. She made a mental note to hide it later since it would be suspicious if she went up to them with a snail on her wrist.

She turned and searched the crowd again to make sure that she knew where the two of them were before leaving the building. Once she was out in the street, she turned and made her way to the musicians. "Please give me 30 seconds before playing a faster tempo song." She instructed the leader of the group. The leader looked at her with surprise, but upon realizing that she was the head of the island's marine base, nodded before shouting something at the other group members.

With that time frame in mind, Tamayo wove her way through the crowds. She finally spotted the two of them again, and upon closer inspection, she confirmed that she'd been right about their identities. She fought back the immediately desire to fight that rose from being close to pirates and instead plastered the biggest smile that she could on her face. She'd have to play nice after all.

"Hey you two!" she called, and due to all of the people there, they didn't seem to be aware that she was calling out to them. She came closer and slid in next to Straw Hat Luffy, idly realizing that she was taller than him, even with her low heels. She was just a little shorter than Roronoa.

Luffy noticed her and looked at her with wide eyes. "Huh?" he asked before looking her up and down. "Who are you?"

"Me?" she laughed. "I'm no one- just looking for someone new to dance with!" she nudged him with her elbow. Meanwhile she felt a gaze as sharp as a blade cut into her. Roronoa was glaring at her from his Captain's other side and she wanted to glare back, but she was playing the good girl right now so she settled for another smile.

On cue, a new song started up and the people around them, instead of milling about and talking to each other, began dancing. Straw Hat Luffy looked around in excitement before turning his wide eyes on her. So she asked him again.

"So do you wanna dance with me?"

"Sure! Let's go!" Luffy grinned but before Tamayo could drag him off, Roronoa had grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey Luffy- don't just run off with random people."

"But I want to dance!" Luffy frowned up at him. "Besides you hates dancing so I can't dance with you!" which must have been the truth since Roronoa didn't try and refute it. When he didn't, Straw Hat just shrugged and Tamayo took her chance and dragged him off into the crowd. Due to all of the people dancing and having a good time, they were swallowed up by the crowd immediately. With a smug grin, Tamayo continued to pull Straw Hat along with her until they reached a place that was more out of the way.

"Hey?" he asked, "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere!" she practically sang before spinning around and trapping his face between her hands. She used her ability without hesitation. "Obey Obey no mi! Total Control!" she held him there are her eyes flashed green. A similar colored light flashed between her palms and Luffy's face as strands of light coiled around his body. For a few seconds his eyes turned the same shade of green.

Straw Hat, taken by surprise, didn't try to move away and within a few seconds he was totally caught under her ability. Tamayo, after 5 seconds, let go of him and smiled at the vacant look in his eyes. Success!

Her ability, Total Control, only worked if she had eye contact with the person for at least 5 seconds. While it was a pain to pull off correctly, the technique was extremely useful. Not only could she have the other person moving around like her puppet, but they were like a blank slate for her. If she'd told Straw Hat Luffy at that moment that he was her long lost twin brother or something, then he would have accepted it without hesitation. Even now, he was just staring into space, waiting for her next order.

"Follow me." She told him. "We need to get out of the way before Roronoa comes looking for you."

"Gotcha." Straw Hat nodded before following after her obediently. Tamayo turned around with a grin and reached down the front of her dress to pull the small snail out from the small pocket between her bra and her chest.

"Clarke?" she asked after she heard the click of the snail connecting to another snail. "I have Straw Hat with me. I'm taking him back to the base."

"Understood," Clarke responded before adding. "Although if I were allowed to suggested something-"

* * *

Zoro ground his teeth together as he scanned the crowd for his airhead Captain. Although he was still annoyed that Luffy had just run off on him, he wasn't surprised. Or well, he was surprised that Luffy hadn't just run off before that. He also refused to dwell on the negative thoughts swirling around in the back of his mind. He wasn't pissed that Luffy had just left him to go off with some random stranger. Not at all. Not even if that stranger had been looking at Luffy with interest in her eyes in the middle of a goddamn romantic festival.

Not mad at all.

With an annoyed snarl he decided to give up his search and go looking for some booze. The gaudy decorations and crowds of people were annoying enough to deal with without alcohol, and now he had a good reason to go looking for some. He wandered over to a vendor that sold alcohol and bought a drink served in a plastic pink bar glass. Frowning at the color, Zoro shrugged and immediately started inhaling the alcohol like it was oxygen. Almost immediately he felt his mood start to lift. The drink wasn't anywhere close to what it required to even get him buzzed, but he enjoyed it all the same. He ordered a few more glasses before he felt a hand on his arm.

Zoro's hackles rose immediately at the contact and his head snapped to the side to glare at the offending person when he realized that it was just his Captain. "Oh, Luffy." Zoro said with a neutral expression. His annoyance from earlier was still there, but it had dulled considerably. Like always, alcohol seemed like the answer to his troubles. "Back already?"

"Yup!" Luffy grinned from ear to ear. "Now I want to hang out with Zoro again." Zoro cocked an eyebrow down at him.

"What if I just want to stand here and drink?" he asked, holding up his drink. Luffy frowned at the drink before shaking his head.

"Nope. That's too boring." He tugged on Zoro's arm and Zoro, knowing how stubborn Luffy could be, sighed before downing the rest of his drink and throwing the plastic cup away. He, once again, ignored the feelings swirling around in the back of his head, even though these ones were much more positive. Zoro let himself be led through the streets by Luffy who, as opposed to earlier, seemed to have some sort of destination in mind. Which, again, didn't surprise Zoro. Luffy had probably just heard about another meat stand somewhere. So instead of wondering about the destination, Zoro just focused on his Captain's grip on his arm, as warm as a brand. Since the alcohol had loosened him up a bit, he felt comfortable just allowing himself to enjoy the sensation. He did not, however, think about how those hands might feel elsewhere on his body. Not at all.

Zoro was quickly brought out of his musings by the sting of his instincts. With suddenly sharp eyes, he glared around at their surroundings, his mouth pulling up into a scowl. They were getting farther away from the music and the crowd had thinned out the point that the streets were almost empty. His free hand twitched but he resisted the immediate urge to pull out his swords. It felt like someone was watching them, but he wasn't sure just how many 'somebodies' there were.

Luffy, meanwhile, continued to chatter on ahead of him. If Luffy had noticed their surroundings, then he wasn't showing it. Zoro assumed that he was just unconcerned about whatever Zoro was sensing. They only walked for another minute or two before the people following them gave up the pretense and Zoro heard a voice shout, "Freeze pirates!" Zoro turned to see a familiar face glaring at him.

"You!" he glared at the woman from earlier. Tamayo still wore her red dress but now a marine Captain's coat laid over her shoulders and a pair of silver knuckle busters.

"Roronoa Zoro! You are under arrest! Surrender now!" she shouted, ignoring his outburst. "As the head of this island's marine base, I am ordering you to come with us quietly!"

Zoro smirked at her command. She sounded gutsy, but did she really think that an order would work on him? The thought made him want to laugh. "I don't think that I will." He said instead, drawing two of his swords. He saw a few men flinch as the sound of the sliding metal and the expression on his face.

Instead of faltering, however, Tamayo just smirked at him. "I think that you should reconsider that decision Pirate Hunter." She gestured behind him. "Unless you'd like to be the cause of your captain's death."

Tensing up, Zoro looked behind him and almost choked. "Luffy! What the hell?!" Somehow Luffy had gotten separated from him and now he stood with another marine's sword pressed to his throat. The worst part was that Luffy wasn't even reacting to it. He was just giving Zoro an oddly blank stare.

"It's amazing it's it?" The marine Captain piped up. "My ability?"

With a snarl Zoro turned on her. "What the hell does that mean?" If there was a devil fruit involved in this situation then that would explain Luffy's abnormal behavior, but it definitely wouldn't be good.

Tamayo smirked. "I ate the Obey Obey fruit, meaning that your Captain is under my control! I could make him do anything right now! I could even make him end his own life, right here, right now." Zoro's glare, somehow, got even more murderous and she had to suppress a shiver of delight. After all of the fear that they put into the hearts of ordinary citizens, it always felt good to do the same to them. "So if you want to avoid that then you'll put those swords at your feet and surrender."

As she spoke, a myriad of thoughts ran through Zoro's head. He could attack her and break her hold on Luffy, but then his Captain's life would be forfeit. He could also attack the man who had his sword pressed against Luffy's throat. He was confident that he was fast enough to strike before the man did any harm, but he still didn't know the extent of the marine Captain's powers. If he turned his back on her then she might do the same thing to him.

Which left the most grating option. With other snarl, Zoro re-sheathed his swords and laid them at his feet. He didn't move as Tamayo gave the order to her men to surround him, nor did he flinch when the handcuffs locked around his wrists. He itched to test the cuffs, to destroy them immediately, but he resisted.

"You've made the right choice Roronoa." Tamayo said with another smirk. "Luckily, your Captain is more useful to me alive than dead. At the moment at least." She added with a shrug. Zoro didn't bother responding, and she swept past him, the Justice kanji fluttering on her back. He heard the click of her heels stop behind him.

"I'll just let you know, I remember the way that you glared at me earlier- for leaving with your Captain. I don't know the extent of your protectiveness towards him, but there is something that I'd like to try. Straw Hat!" she called out, and Zoro twisted around to glare at her, ignoring the warning shouts from the marines holding onto him.

"What the hell are you doing now?!"

She ignored his outburst and continued. "New order. You'll retain your memories of your crewmates so that I can look for them later, but," she paused to draw out the word. "I want you to forget everything you know about the man behind me. Everything." She turned her head to the side enough that Zoro could see the gleam in her eyes. "From this moment on, Roronoa Zoro is a stranger to you."

"Ok." Luffy nodded and when he turned back to Zoro, there was no spark of recognition in his eyes.

* * *

Standing a few blocks away, with her arms folded over her chest and her eyes closed, was Nico Robin. She watched everything happen with a pair of eyes and ears that she'd bloomed onto a nearby building that was far enough away that there was no chance of the marines spotting her limbs. She'd seen a few of them creeping around the edge of the festival with a clear destination in mind, and she'd followed them from afar, making sure to keep well out of their sight. She'd known that her suspicion might have been nothing, but she'd been more wary of the marines finding them or their ship than anything else.

Instead she'd seen both Luffy and Zoro being captured in one fell swoop. One of the marines, it seemed, had an interesting Paramecia fruit, which had allowed her to control the Straw Hat Captain. It was unexpected, but she wasn't surprised. Even if Straw hat had somehow been strong enough to take down Crocodile, that didn't mean that he couldn't be defeated by others with devil fruit abilities as well.

Swordsman-san was a little more of a surprise. To see the man give in so easily and let himself be handcuffed with so little fuss was surprising. He'd been strong enough to take down Daz Bones so Robin knew that he could have easily created a bloodbath with those men. After all, his bloodthirst was one of the reasons that Baroque Works had previously been interested in recruiting him. However, she'd noted his loyalty to the crew earlier, and it was logical that that loyalty might extend even farther for his Captain. While Robin knew with certainty that she would never lay down her life for any of her previous Captains, she also knew that Swordsman-san was much more loyal to Captain-san than she had ever been to Crocodile or the rest.

The two of them had a good chance of being able to escape the marine base though. Even with that marine Captain's threat of killing Captain-san at a moment's notice, Robin had also heard her say that she had more of an interest in keeping him alive- until it was time to hand him over to the executioner's block, at least. That would give Swordsman-san plenty of time to do anything.

What bothered her more was the marine's desire to get information from Captain-san about his other crewmates. She knew that she had to leave the island soon, before she had the marines on her tail. Whether or not Luffy and Zoro could handle themselves was none of her concern when it was her own life on the line. However, to preserve that life she needed to find a boat and get off of the island fast. Luckily, she knew where to get one.

It was just a shame. She had planned on staying with the Straw Hat pirates for just a while longer.

* * *

When Robin heard someone calling her name she almost ignored it. Instead, recognizing the navigator's voice, she schooled her face into a calm expression and turned the face the red head as she approached. In the back of her mind Robin wondered how long it would be until the marines knew of her presence.

"Good evening Navigator-san." Robin said instead, letting a small smile peek through her expression. Nami returned it with a smile of her own.

"I thought that I'd seen you." The slight flush on the girl's face made Robin think that she's been drinking, but she doesn't seem drunk at all. Instead she told Robin about how she'd just won a lot of money off of a group of locals in a poker game. As usual, her love for money was obvious. Robin smiled along with her, but Nami's smile quickly turned into a frown.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" she asked and Robin debated whether she should lie or not. She decided not to waste her own time.

"Actually, it would seem that there is a problem." She looked towards the marine base that sat on the island's hill like a crown. "I noticed some strange marine movement around the island and after I followed them I saw them arrest Captain-san and Swordsman-san."

Nami paled at the news. "Those two? How?!" she gasped.

"The head of the base here has a devil fruit that allows her to control others. Captain-san had just been the latest target. Once she threatened his life, Swordsman-san gave in rather quickly as well."

Nami, with her mouth drawn tight in a frown swore under her breath. "Shit. We need to find the others and then regroup then." Already her mind was racing to form a plan. "It would be best if we could figure out how she got to Luffy, but getting Zoro out of there will be important too." She paused to look at Robin. "I'll find the others and then meet you back at the ship, ok?" she asked before turning on her heel and running into the crowd, calling out for the rest of their crew.

Robin watched her go disappear into the crowd before she continued in the direction of the ship- albeit at a faster pace. She still needed to get to the ship first and get away from this island. The other Straw Hats getting there first would put a damper on her plan. She had a feeling that they wouldn't take too kindly to her taking their ship, but she didn't really have any other options at the moment.

She made her way to the ship as quickly as she could- making sure to keep on the lookout for any prowling marines. That got harder and harder as she approached the area that the ship had been docked at. If that Captain was looking for information on Luffy's crew, then it would only make sense that she also ask him where his ship was docked. She needed to get there before the marines swarmed the place.

When she finally reached the ship, which was a good ways away from the local dock, she stuck to the tree lines and watched ten or so marines searching the perimeter of the ship. Seeing them all there was annoying, but she could handle their small numbers. With one fluid motion she sprouted arms from each of their shoulders and with a quick twist, left all of them collapsed in a heap. With another flick of her wrists, she moved the unconscious marines and dumped their bodies in a pile on the beach near the ship.

The marines that had been searching the ship from the inside were drawn out by all of the noise, but Robin dealt with them with the same efficiency. Once she was sure that the ship was clear, she climbed aboard and searched through her supplies until she found her eternal log pose. It would point her back to Alabasta, but it was much better than trying to navigate without a log pose.

She took a minute to reaffirm herself with the design of the ship. With her ability she could run the whole ship in addition to navigating, so she didn't worry about the manpower needed. In addition to that, Alabasta was only a 2 or 3 day journey. She'd have to do something about the main flag and the black pirate flag to lessen the suspiciousness of the ship, but that was hardly a problem. She looked over the railing as saw that the coast was still clear- no marines or Straw Hat pirates in sight. Now all she needed to do was to set sail.

Folding her arms over her chest, she bloomed arms on the main mast so that she could unfurl the sails and along the side of the ship to draw up the anchor.

Then she stopped.

Robin opened her eyes and then frowned at her own hesitance. She needed to leave before she had any ships on her tail. She knew that, and yet…

" _Put me down! Just leave me here to die!"_

Her own voice echoed in her head, followed by memories of the pain from her wound and the bone deep exhaustion; she'd been tired of fighting, tired of trying, tired of living. And yet-

" _Why should I listen to you?"_

The phrase had been spoken in such an offhanded way and the eyes that he'd looked at her with had been blank. She'd been her enemy and he had saved her, not because he'd known that she'd had the antidote to Crocodile's poison, but for some reason that she still didn't understand. Based on his own words it had been an impulse- a decision that hadn't required her input- but she hadn't understood that. She still didn't understand why he'd saved her without asking anything in turn- without demanding something from her.

He'd saved her life, and in return had forced her to live.

But her reasons for continuing this life of hers were so frail. Her goal of finding the Rio Poneglyph was still so impossible. If she ran now, where would she go? How would she find another lead to another Poneglyph?

How long could she even continue like this?

She had no idea. Her driving force, her will, had been chipped away at for these last 20 years. She'd focused on the Poneglyphs with a madman-like intensity. And she'd failed, time and time again. How many more times could she start over like this? How many times could she try and fail again before she finally broke?

She… she didn't know, and the thought struck her like a physical blow. Without realizing it, her arms had dropped from their position over her chest and they hung by her side instead. She turned a troubled expression towards the shore, where the other Straw Hat crew members had yet to show and she thought.

She thought about those long years and about Ohara and her mother and Saul's last words to her. And she thought about her goal and about how the darkness seemed to trail her at every turn no matter how far she fled. How failure and death clung to her like a cloak. She thought about setting off on her own, now plagued with the lonely ideas that she had pushed away each time before.

And then she thought about music.

She thought about that old bar song that she'd just sang that morning. She thought about the Captain's- no, Luffy's- off key voice and cheery tone. About the other crew mates too. They were strangers to her and she was a stranger to them, and yet, they had treated her kindly. They were unlike any other crew that she'd joined in the last two decades.

She thought about Luffy saving her life and she thought about leaving him here to possibly die, and she thought about confirming every suspicion that Swordsman-san had of her- everything that they both knew was true about her.

And then she thought about Nami's words. Earnest and honest as she'd spoken to her before searching for the rest of the crew. Nami had told her to return to the ship, not suspecting that Robin might simply abandon them.

Nami had trusted her not to.

Robin couldn't remember the last time she'd been trusted.

People trusted her reputation, and they trusted in her abilities and skills, but the last time that someone had trusted in _her_?

She couldn't remember it.

And that thought weighed the heaviest of all.

* * *

Nami found Chopper first. The reindeer had been in line to buy some cotton candy when Nami had called out to him. She explained what Robin had told her as they looked for Usopp and Sanji; the former who was at a shooting game, and the latter who they found flirting with a group of the local girls. Again, Nami had to explain their current situation, but by the time that they had reached the ship, everyone was more or less caught up.

Nami called out to Robin when they reached the ship, and the other woman turned to look at them from where she'd been leaning against the railing. "How's the situation over here?" she asked.

"There's been nothing so far." Robin called back. It had been maybe a half an hour since Luffy had been captured. Plenty of time to get any necessary information out of him, so it seemed strange to her that no marines had shown up yet.

Nami seemed to be thinking the same thing as she bit her lip. "Even if they didn't know exactly where we were, this coastline isn't huge. I don't know if them not finding us yet is part of a bigger plan or what but," she waved the thought aside. "We still need to hurry." She followed the others onto the ship and waited until everyone had gathered into a circle to begin speaking.

"Ok, the first thing that I think that we should do is to split up into two groups."

"Two groups?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah," Nami sighed. "One team needs to go after the idiots, but we can't just leave the Merry Go here without any protection. Just because the Marines haven't found the ship yet doesn't mean that they won't."

"Alright! I'll protect Merry then!" Usopp said quickly, and Nami usually would have called him out on it as a ploy to get out of fighting marines, but she knew about his genuine love for the ship so she just nodded. The ship would be safe with Usopp.

"Alright, Sanji, Chopper, I'll need you both to go to the Marine Base."

"Got it Nami!"

"Of course Nami-swan!" the two chorused.

On her left, Robin finally spoke up. "I'll remain on the Merry Go as well." Again, there was something slightly off about her, but Nami nodded anyways.

"Then I'll go with Sanji and Chopper." Truthfully she didn't want to fight marines either, but she was sure that with Sanji and Chopper as distractions, she could have an easier time sneaking around. She'd have to work out a more concrete plan with Sanji and Chopper too, but before that she turned to Robin. "Robin, can I talk to you for a second?"

Robin had the usual guarded look in her eyes, but a wry smile tugged at her lips. "Of course Navigator-san."

The two of them pulled away from the group until they had some quiet away from the others. "I know that I asked this before, but are you ok Robin?" Nami tried again, and again she got one of those searching stares from before. She knew that the other woman was looking for something- something in her- but she had no idea what it could have been. Robin was still too much of an unknown factor, still too hard to read, and Nami could only guess the thoughts that were running through her head.

"I was originally planning on just taking the ship and leaving." Robin confessed without a hint of remorse. Just sizing up Nami's reactions.

Nami's reaction seemed to surprise her though. Instead of the anger or distrust there, Nami gave her something approaching a smile. "But you're still here."

"I could still take the ship if I wanted to though," Robin said with forced nonchalance. "Long Nose-kun isn't that difficult of an opponent."

Nami winced a little at the threat before giving Robin a searching look of her own. "Well, you wouldn't be the first one to just run off with the ship then." Or to hurt Usopp, her thoughts add afterwards, even though she'd never actually physically hurt him. "Actually, I've taken the ship before. I'd had personal business to settle." Robin looked a little surprised at the comment but didn't say anything so Nami continued.

"Look, I've been thinking it for a while, but you remind me of how I used to be." The fake smiles and the self-imposed distance from others and even the pulling back from conversations just to watch other people's reactions and hear their words. "I don't know if that's just your personality or because you've been through enough things to force you to be like that," the scar on her shoulder where Arlong's mark used to lie twinges at her words, "But I do know one important thing. Luffy trusts you."

Again Robin looked shocked. "Despite the fact that I was his enemy just a few days prior? That's not very smart." She noted.

"Yeah, well, Luffy isn't exactly smart either." Nami shrugged before her eyes got a faraway look to them again. "But one thing I've learned about him is that he has a good sense when it comes to people. He has a habit of trusting people that he really shouldn't based off of their reputations alone." It was obvious just by looking at his crew; a bloodthirsty pirate hunter, a thief who steals from pirates, a liar, a violent cook, a human hybrid monster, and now, the former second in command of a bounty hunting group. "In the past Luffy's trusted me even when he's had every reason in the world not to. And now he trusts you so I'll do the same." She gave Robin a wry smile. "It's not exactly the smart thing to do, but it's how we do things around here."

Robin didn't respond for a while, and when she did, it was in a tone that was a little different from her normal one. "I've been thinking over the past few days- about life on this sea. It's a dangerous and harsh place and eventually everyone gets broken down by it. It was how I had accepted this lifestyle to be." Her voice was pained, but Nami didn't comment on it. "I've survived any way that I could, and now for the first time in a very, very long time I've faced people who have trusted me so quickly, despite knowing who I was. Even now, my instincts are telling me to run, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do so before."

"That's the effect that hanging around these guys will have on you." Nami said with a grin. "Even after everything, leaving them was still one of the hardest things that I've ever done." She glanced up towards Robin again before saying, "Honestly, I won't try to stop you if you really want to run. I'm not that type, but if you do, then all I'll ask is that you don't take this ship- it's kind of important to us- and that you at least wait until we get Luffy back." Her smile was tinged with a bit of regret now. "It's annoying, but he really will be upset if you're gone before he comes back."

Robin, after a few seconds, gave her a slow nod and Nami smiled back. There was probably more that she could have said, but upon seeing Robin's expression, she decided not to. It wasn't hard to see that Robin needed time to digest everything that Nami had told her.

So Nami left her in the storage room and walked back out onto the top deck to start planning on how to get their idiot Captain out of his latest mess.

* * *

Zoro tasted blood in his mouth and with a sigh he spit it towards the corner of the cell farthest away from him. The marines, emboldened by his lack of a desire to fight back, had been rough on him as they'd detained him, and Zoro knew that he'd be paying them back for it later several times over. Before that, though, he had to come up with a way to get out of his current situation.

The marine base, it seemed, was old as hell, and as such most of the place was outdated; including the cells that Zoro was being held in. He had briefly wondered how peaceful a place this must have been where the cells were so underused and neglected that several of them had rusted or broken bars. Even the one that he was currently situated in didn't look good. Most of the bars in the front of the cell had broken or rusted away, and instead of simply being chained and left there, he had been tied to a post that stood in the middle of the cell. In his current position, with his arms tied back and his body drawn into a position where he couldn't stand comfortably, he was reminded of being held by Captain Morgan all those months ago. The marine Captain at this base certainly had the ego to match his at least.

She'd come by just after he'd been taken down here, reminding him again of his current… situation. He still didn't think of himself as a helpless party in the whole scheme of things, but she apparently did, and in this case, her assumption would work better in his favor.

Still, it had been hard to hear her gloat over what she assumed was an easy capture. Her and her men had worn confident smiles as she'd spoken of finding her redemption through his and Luffy's capture. Luffy himself hadn't been present when she'd come down, but from the way she'd spoken of him, Luffy was still ok. They had him answering questions about the rest of the crew and their possible whereabouts, but Zoro hoped- no trusted- that they'd be able to handle themselves if it came down to it. Instead of distracting himself by thinking about what could possibly be happening with them, he focused on what he could do about the situation. Namely find Luffy and get out.

More than once during his thoughts, Zoro's eyes strayed towards the man who stood just outside of his cell like a specter. Clarke had yet to speak, but he watched Zoro like a hawk where most of the others had dismissed him as a non-threat. The man stood at ease, and the sword that hung against his hip was visible even in the dim light of the cells. A part of Zoro wanted to test his proficiency with that sword of him, but a larger part of him just didn't focus on the man. He would keep his presence in mind until the man actually did anything threatening or dangerous.

Some time passed after the marine Captain's visit before he heard the slap of footsteps on the distant stone- echoing loudly through the area. The marine looked up to see who their newest visitor was, but Zoro could have identified those footsteps without even opening his eyes.

His eyes widened as Luffy came into view and he took in his Captain's appearance. There were no visible wounds or bruises on him, and Luffy's usual smile was in place. The spark of recognition in his eyes from when he normally looked at Zoro, was not.

His eyes were still as expressive as usual, but the interest in them as they passed over Zoro, tied up in the cell, were nothing like Luffy's usual brand of excitement. Instead of being recognized as 'Nakama' Zoro was just something 'interesting' to Luffy.

His thoughts were confirmed with the next words out of Luffy's mouth. "So that's the pirate that Tamago captured then?" he looked to the marine for confirmation.

"Tamago?" the man's mouth twisted slightly, just imagining the woman's reaction to the nickname, but he didn't comment further on it. "One of several that will be in a cell before tomorrow morning." He approached Luffy as he spoke and Zoro resisted the urge to snap at him. "However," Clarke continued, "His identity does not explain why you yourself are down here right now."

Luffy cocked his head to the side and frowned at the marine. "What do you mean? I'm down here 'cause it's boring everywhere else up there. Tamago told me not to leave the base and everyone else is running around upstairs and giving me weird looks so I came down here instead."

"So she finished questioning you then?"

Luffy shrugged. "Probably? I dunno. She asked me some questions and then told me to leave her alone cause I was being too annoying." Again, Luffy peeked around the man to look at Zoro, his interest in talking to the marine quickly waning.

The marine frowned as Luffy moved past him but didn't try to stop him. Zoro was frankly surprised that he had allowed even much. However, he could see why the marine hadn't felt the need to stop Luffy. There was no reason to with Luffy under a devil fruit induced hypnosis. He wasn't Zoro's Captain right now, or even an ally.

Zoro met Luffy's gaze as the other man stopped to look at him. He stood just inside the opening of the cell, and just stared at Zoro. Then he grinned.

"Everyone upstairs seemed so afraid of the pirate down here, but I wonder if you're really that scary. Especially since you're already tied up here."

Zoro felt his eye twitch at the words and he bit back the words that wanted to snap back. "Shut it." He was still aware of the marine watching the two of them so he held back most of what he wanted to say. "My reputation and the reason why they were able to lock me up here have nothing to do with each other." He said to the reason why they were able to lock him up down here.

"Is that so?" Luffy's tone suggested that he didn't really believe Zoro's words. With his arms up and his hands laced behind his head, Luffy grinned at Zoro. "If it was me though, I would have gotten out of those restraints a long time ago." He laughed and Zoro felt a sense of Deja Vu.

"I'm not trying to escape." Zoro said after a pause. Which wasn't a lie at the moment. "I have my own reasons for it." It was hard to remember those reasons why when the person who he had needed to find was standing right in front of him. His eyes strayed back towards the marine, who was resting his hand on the hilt of his sword now, and he remembered. He still had no idea if that marine woman could kill Luffy from afar, but if she couldn't then this man would; if Zoro made any suspicious movements, that is. So he kept himself calm.

Luffy, however, continued to chatter on. "Are you worried about the rest of your crew?" Zoro tried to not show how surprised he was at the sudden comment. Luffy continued, probably not noticing his reaction. "Tamago asked me some questions about a bunch of other pirates. They're with you right?" he asked and after a pause Zoro nodded. "Man, they must be important then!" he laughed, "Cause Tamago got really mad when I talked about Nico Robin."

The lone marine made a choking noise before his head snapped towards Luffy. "Nico Robin? That was her name? You're sure?"

"Yup."

Clarke straightened up and turned towards Zoro. "It seems that I must go then. I trust that you understand what will happen if you try anything Roronoa." He said, ignoring Zoro's steely glare. "You too." He looked at Luffy. "Behave yourself."

Luffy grinned a grin that Zoro didn't trust in the least and the marine left in a hurry, his coat sweeping out behind him.

Zoro watched him go, noting his response with no little degree of surprise. Although he had stopped looking at wanted posters after joining Luffy, he'd seen Robin's before. Her picture was outdated- showing her as a distrustful looking child, rather than the distrusting woman that she was now- but her bounty had been rather large. The fact that the marines were excited at the mention of her being on the island wasn't surprising.

It did help him because now the marine was gone, but that left him with just his Captain.

"So," Luffy asked when the man's footsteps had faded. "What will you do now?" he kicked at a piece of rubble in the cell before he grinned at Zoro.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well you're not just gonna wait around here, right?" his grinned widened. "You looked like you wanna get outta here but you haven't- was that marine guy that scary?"

Zoro sighed and a smirk tugged at his lips. Even when Luffy didn't recognize him he was still trying to stir up trouble. "Of course I'm not worried about that guy." He just said, and Luffy was still looking at him with that curious gleam in his eyes so he added, "I'm just waiting for my Captain."

Zoro doesn't really know why he said it. It's not like he expected something to light up behind Luffy's eyes- for there to be any recognition there- but it's the truth. He's waiting for Luffy now because he's always waiting for his Captain in some way or another. It's something that he knows that he's continue to do even after all of this is over.

Luffy's eyes widen a little in surprise before he asked, "Really? I thought that you were the captain. You seemed pretty cool- just like a Captain." He spoke like he had some sort of reference to draw from.

"I'm not." He shook his head just slightly, annoyed at how even that simple motion pulled at the muscles in his neck. Seriously, what was with marines and this weird position he'd been tied into? Then, after a pause, he added, "In fact, my Captain's cooler than I am." The phrase is awkward and foreign coming out of his mouth as Zoro's never been the type to call anyone 'cool'.

"Really?" Luffy twitched in excitement. "Is he strong too?"

"The strongest."

"What's he like?"

Zoro paused before he spoke again. Speaking to Luffy like this was… strange to say the least, but there was also something interesting, or maybe amusing was a better way to put it, about Luffy's reactions. He still didn't know much about his Captain's past- or really anything at all- but he could still see the interest that buzzed through Luffy's body as he spoke. It was good to see that his interest in pirates and piracy were things that could be erased with some mind altering.

Still, it was even stranger talking to Luffy about himself. Luffy didn't remember him or his ties to him, and it seemed like he didn't remember the rest of the crew now either. He hoped that those memories wouldn't be permanently altered by that devil fruit after all of this, but there was a spark of hope in him. It wasn't for anything concrete, but rather based on the sense of Déjà vu that was based on how similar this seemed to be to their first conversation. Luffy didn't remember him but there was still a sense of ease between them. Zoro wasn't one to place too much thought into the idea of fate, but if Luffy could meet him, without remembering a thing about him, and the two of them could fall into the same pattern with each other, then it had to mean something, right? That no matter where they would have met, no matter when, then there would have been that connection between them.

Zoro, who was not usually a hopeful man, hoped so.

The feelings raised by these thoughts, usually pushed back and ignored in favor of more cut and straight loyalty, made him open his mouth and speak again.

"He's a reckless idiot who doesn't know how not to run into a bad situation head first and who seems to like making the rest of his crew worry needlessly." Zoro noted Luffy's expression dropping slightly, as if he had expected kinder words from Zoro about this unknown Captain. "He also never gives a thought to other's complaints and he always pushes forward without a single care in the world. Despite that," Zoro paused, "Or rather, because of that, he never stops to think before helping the people that he considers friends- even if they've betrayed him before. He gets involved in issues that don't concern him all of the time but he's reliable and he inspires belief in people, even if they've only known him for a short while. He never doubts anything- his friends, his strength, or his beliefs, which is why the rest of us believe in him as well. As such," A smile that was fonder than Zoro would have liked touched his mouth but he didn't bother to hide it. "He's the only man that I'd willing follow out to sea- That future Pirate King." His last words are spoken with confidence, and he'd held Luffy's gaze the entire time. He wasn't trying to make him remember, but he wanted Luffy to know these feelings of his. They were things that he had never needed to say because he had always been the type to show his feelings through his actions, but they were important to say now.

Luffy's eyes had widened over the course of his speech and he seemed stunned by the end of it. Maybe he was surprised by the show of emotion in Zoro's voice when he had been so apathetic before, or maybe he was surprised to hear so much about this mysterious captain, or maybe somehow the words struck home; at least a little.

Instead of responding right away Luffy just stared at him for a few seconds before he finally started laughing. It started off as a low chuckle and quickly escalated into something loud and happy. In a familiar gesture Luffy reached up and tugged the hat up and over his head and pulled down on the brim so that it shaded his eyes. "Shishishi," his laugh trailed off before he said, "Damn- I'm happy but also kinda annoyed."

Zoro cocked an eyebrow at him. "Annoyed?"

"Yup." Luffy sighed, his eyes still hidden. "I thought that you looked like an interesting guy and it turns out that it was totally true. You're pretty funny, but-", he paused and looked at Zoro with a familiar grin. "It's frustrating- if you weren't already so loyal to someone else then I'd wanna ask you to join me."

Zoro doesn't know how to react to the casual words, but before he could even begin to even decide how he should react, a different marine came to tell Luffy that the marine Captain wanted him again.

Pirates were attacking the base.

* * *

Their plan, in Nami's opinion, had been a pretty simple one. They knew that both Luffy and Zoro had been captured, and that Luffy was under some sort of hypnotism. They also knew that they had to get into the marine base, get Luffy and Zoro, and then get out before the marine captured them or the Merry Go. Pretty simple, right?

What wasn't simple was how to actually get into the base. When pressed for both time and manpower, there weren't many options that Nami liked. Her preferred choice was to sneak in, of course. Without Luffy or Zoro there to throw a wrench into their plans or to make ruckus then that seemed like the soundest option. But with the three of them, no way to disguise themselves, and the fact that the marines were probably waiting for them, it wasn't the most reasonable option.

Sanji's plan was a little rougher around the edges. "Let's just bust in there." He suggested before exhaling a cloud of smoke. Nami and Chopper looked like they were going to protest immediately so Sanji just held up a hand to the two of them. "Look, I know that it's usually something that one of the two captured block heads would have thought up, but the problem is that we need to get in there fast and we're already two men down." Nami bit her lip at the thought and Chopper let out a quiet

"But-but…." his voice trailed off as he saw the already obvious logic.

"Plus," Sanji added, "This base seems rather small and I spoke to some of the people on the island today. It's usually a peaceful place so the marine presence is limited. It won't be in a few hours if we drag this out and get more marines sent to chase down our asses. With our luck anyways, they'd be like that persistent smoke bastard too. Besides, they have our Captain and they're probably out searching for us right now. They'll be more surprised if we do nothing at this point."

As Nami and Chopper, two members of the crew who usually tried to avoid conflict, looked at each other neither could refute what Sanji was saying. Indeed it seemed like force would have to do the trick this time. They nodded at the same time and Chopper asked,

"What should we do then Sanji?"

Sanji exhaled some more smoke before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Since we don't know where either of the idiots are, I'll leave it to your nose to find them, alright Chopper?" Chopper nodded. "And I think that you should go with him Nami-swan, since sneaking around is your specialty." Nami nodded as well. "And with that, I'll just distract as much of the marine force as I can."

"By yourself?" Chopper asked and Sanji nodded.

"I'm not an idiot like that piece of moss so I won't get captured, but if I can string the marines around for a while then it'll give you guys some more leeway, right?"

Nami paused at his idea. While it was true that Sanji was one of the strongest in the crew and that there was unlikely to be anyone who could match him at the base, they had somehow gotten Zoro to stand down, and she worried about that. Who was to say that the same couldn't happen to Sanji? And then they'd really be up a creek here.

Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to come up with anything else and so Nami just sighed and looked back at Sanji. "Fine. We'll go with that plan. What should we do first?"

* * *

As it turned out, they didn't have to do much. They marines had obviously been waiting for them. One sight of Sanji's blond head and black suit in a sea of white and blue and the marines knew that they had trouble on their hands. With one sweeping kick, Sanji sent dozens of men flying through the air and the shots that had been aimed at him went wide at the force of the wind generated from his kick.

"Don't let your guard down!" One of the marines screamed. "Look out for the rest of them too!"

"Oh!" Sanji shouted, kneeing the man in the face and sending him flying. "I'd worry about me more right now you shitheads." He mowed marines down with ease, reflecting on how much harsher his battles in Alabasta had been than this. He froze however when a voice shouted out to him.

"Halt Pirate!"

Sanji spun midkick to see a beautiful woman glaring at him. His eyes strayed towards the top of her red dress and the great view that it afforded him and then down to her legs, which looked even better in the dark red heels and a smile slid over his face- he was immediately smitten. He almost missed it when she came charging at him, one fist raised in an overhead strike and her knuckle busters shining in the light.

With a shout that fist slammed into the ground near him, throwing up a cloud of dirt and earth. Sanji avoided the attack with a graceful jump and quickly brought a leg up to stop her next charge. Tamayo's silver knuckle busters collided with his shin, but the force of her attack was stopped. They pressed together in a struggle, his leg strength against her arms and it was clear by the way that her teeth ground together that she was struggling. With a spin Sanji disengaged her and swept her legs to knock her off balance. She let out a grunt as she fell and he stood above her, her blood red eyes glared up at him in an anger that his love fried brain interpreted as passion.

"I'd rather not fight such a beautiful woman." He told her honestly and her mouth twisted up into a snarl.

"Then don't, Pirate!" she shouted, before- "Luffy! Get this man!"

Later Sanji would say that he had sensed the fist flying towards him, but the shock of hearing this woman call Luffy's name had distracted him.

He let out a groan as he hit the ground and his back exploded with pain from the blow, but he quickly swept his legs around until he was back on his feet and he brought his leg up to parry the second punch. Luffy, looking the same as when Sanji had seen him earlier, charged at him like a he was an enemy, and Sanji immediately got serious.

"What are you doing you shit head?!" Sanji snapped as he avoided the blows that he could and parried the ones that he couldn't.

Luffy didn't respond and Sanji knew that talking was useless from the serious gleam in his usually sunny Captain's eyes. If Sanji hadn't believed that Luffy was hypnotized before then he knew that it had to be true now- there was no way that Luffy would seriously attack his Nakama like this. Fine then! Sanji snorted before tossing his cigarette aside and going on the offensive. If Luffy was under a woman's spell then he'd kick some sense into his Captain's head. At the very least, he took some satisfaction in the fact that Luffy was here with him and not going after Nami or Chopper. Call it small blessings and whatnot.

With a shout, the two of them collided again.

* * *

Meanwhile, Nami and Chopper, rather than coming in through the back during Sanji's dash through the front, went in through the left side of the base. Chopper crunched down on a rumble ball and it was like a time had started. They had seven minutes to settle this in the best case situation before they'd be, more or less, down another fighter.

"Hold on Nami!" Chopper shouted and the red head wrapped her arms around his neck before he transformed to his Jump Point. With a single leap he was over the marine's fence and he landed on one of the staggered roofs that was closer to the second floor. Nami let go of his neck once her feet had touched the ground and let Chopper sniff the air. "I'll tell you when I can smell them." He told Nami before the pair ducked in through a window.

The hallway that they landed in was clear, but they heard the shout of marine voices from nearby and knew that the marines would be passing through soon.

"Look," Nami said, tossing all ideas of being quiet or sneaky out of mind. "I've been to a few marine bases before and usually their cells are in the lower levels. If we're on the second or third level now then we need to get down fast."

Chopper looked at her and nodded. "Ok, stand back Nami!" he said before shifting to his Arm Point. With his muscles getting bigger and bigger he looked down at the floor and waited until Nami was out of the way of any immediate damage before launching his strongest attack at the floor.

It crumbled immediately and Chopper just hoped that his attack had gone down far enough because now they were falling. Chopper landed on his feet a few floors down and turned to try and catch Nami, but she landed on her feet with barely a sound. They two of them looked around the area and jail cells.

"Looks like we're in the right area." Nami said just as Chopper's nose jerked up. He sniffed the air just to be sure that he had the right scents before he turned to Nami again.

"I think that I smell them! Let's go!" he started running down a direction of cells and Nami followed close behind, holding tight to her clima-tact. They could hear some marine voice from the direction that they were running towards before the two of them rounded the corner and saw a group of marines- some with rifles pointing towards their direction and others with rifles pointing inside of the cell. Without giving them time to react, Chopper shifted to his Horn Point and charged them. The marines in front of the cell were thrown by his horns and landed in a heap farther away.

While Chopper made sure that they were down for the count, Nami ran into the cell and saw a familiar figure.

"Wow," she said in a careless tone as she looked at the bit of blood on his head and chest. "You look like shit Zoro."

Zoro glared at her, but she was beyond immune to that by now so she just started untying the ropes holding him up. "Care to explain to me why the big and scary Roronoa Zoro is being held here by some rope?" Nami asked over the shouts coming from where Chopper had disappeared to.

"Because," Zoro scowled, "That damn marine used her goddamn fruit ability on Luffy and threatened to kill him if I didn't play nice." He winced as Nami pulled tighter at some of the ropes. She was being efficient and smooth with the others so he knew that this one was on purpose.

"That's still a stupid reason to get caught." She said with only the slightest bit of irritation to her words. "But you're more or less ok, and I haven't heard about Luffy getting hurt so I guess that you made the right choice." She undid the last of the ropes as she asked, "Your swords?"

"How should I know?" Zoro scowled and stood at his full height. He rubbed at his arms and wrists absentmindedly. "That marine took them so they're probably in her office."

"Well," Nami put her hands on her hips. "At least we have people that we can ask." She said before running out of the cell and to where Chopper had the group of marines in a groaning pile. "Hey," she leaned down and grabbed one of the men by the nose. "I'm looking for some swords. Have you seen them?" she asked.

The man glared at her and Nami let out an overdramatic sigh before turning the man's head so that he can look at Zoro. The man, who could be intimidating without even trying, was now radiating anger and the look on his face could have made a demon cry. Turning the man's face back towards her, Nami asked again. "So about those swords- they belong to my friend here and I'd like to get them back sooner rather than later."

The man, who looked like he might cry, muttered the location of an office where the swords were being held to her and Nami nodded before letting the man pass out in peace. "Well," Nami said as she stood up. "That at least answers one que-" she shrieked as she was shoved to the ground by Zoro.

The swordsman crouched over her before glaring at something over his shoulder while Chopper moved in front of the two of them. Standing just a ways away from them was Clarke with his sword drawn. It looked different than the standard issued marine swords and one swing of it had left deep gouges in the stone walls above their heads.

Zoro stood up quickly and took Nami with him before pushing her in the opposite direction. "Go and find my swords." He told her. "And I'll handle this idiot."

"We'll handle him Zoro." Chopper reminded him, shifting back to his arm point.

With a nod at both of their back, Nami took off in the opposite direction, looking for any way up.

* * *

Back at the Merry Go, Usopp was torn between screaming and going for the cannons. Shortly after the other three had left for the marine base, the two of them had started encountering marines on the beach. At first Robin had been able to handle them with ease. Usopp had flinched time and time again at the sound of spines and back breaking, but Robin had been ruthless in her approach

So instead he focused on using on scanning the horizon from the crow's nest. He ignored the marines on the beach to the best of his abilities- except from the occasional whimper and plea of Robin's name when a bullet came too close to him- and instead watched the horizon for any marine ships. So far there had been none, but he had every expectation that that might change soon. In the meantime-

"Robin! Please do something!" he practically screeched as a bullet nailed the wood right by his hand.

* * *

Nami climbed the stairs until she reached the third floor, either knocking out or electrocuting any marines that she saw along the way. Most of the base, it seemed, was either in the city or dealing with Sanji, but there were enough to really get in her way. She ran until she reached what she assumed to be the right hallway, but she stopped when she heard shouting.

"I don't care! I told you that this place was understaffed! We're dealing with pirates and we have nothing!" a woman shouted and Nami crept forward, her clima-tact in hand. She paused outside of the door that the shouting was coming from and she saw a green haired woman yelling into the receiver of a den den mushi. Her eyes scanned the room and she smirked when she spotted a familiar white handle in the corner of the room. Taking a deep breath, Nami backed away from the door and prepared her next attack. It would be best if she could take the marine out with just one shot so she prepared a big one. After that she would get Zoro's swords and get the hell out of there.

Nami created clouds in the hallway and once she was sure that she had enough, she let out a lightning ball before dodging out of the way. A few seconds later the hallway exploded with a bright light and the crackle of electricity in the air. Smoke filled the hallway as the marine screamed and Nami used it as a cover to duck into the office. She moved towards where she remembered seeing the swords, but her instincts screamed at her to move and so she threw herself to the ground as a fist soared over her head. The wall to her side exploded as the marine woman's punch missed Nami and hit the wall instead. Nami looked up, and one look at the hole in the wall and she just 'noped'.

She grabbed the three swords and ran out of the room, tears of fear streaking down her face as she heard the marine give chase. Nami ran as fast as she could, her mind scrambling to come up with a plan. She could try using the special function of the clima-tact on the marine, but that would render her weapon useless until Usopp fixed it again. Then again-

Nami squeaked as she reached a dead end. Holding the swords in a loose grip with one arm, she readied the clima-tact with the other. Before she could ready an attack, Tamayo's strike took her by surprise as the other woman shouted,

"Obey Obey no Mi: Marionette!" Green light, like strings, shot out of her finger and wrapped themselves around Nami's body. Nami tried to jerk away from the strings but her body refused to listen to her. She was frozen in place, but her mind was racing.

"Wha-what the heck is this?!" Nami shouted as the marine closed in on her.

* * *

Tamayo marched the pirate girl out with her to the front of the marine base. She heard fighting from somewhere below her but she honestly couldn't bring it upon herself to care at the moment. Clarke had rushed down there after the pirates had broken into the base. If he couldn't handle the situation down there then she'd get to it, but she couldn't right now.

Instead she focused on her ability. The Full Control move that she had used on their Captain would get weaker and weaker with the more people that it was used on, but she didn't have a choice. She needed to get the current situation under control.

She spotted the pirates still fighting up again and she was annoyed that the Captain hadn't won yet. With her anger showing, she shouted at him to stop attacking the blond man. When Sanji fell back, the blond spun to look at her, but unlike earlier there was no flirty look on his face- not even a smirk. Instead he saw her unwilling captive and his eyes shown with anger. Tamayo felt her own anger flare up in response. How dare this man show her that look- as if she were the one in the wrong!

"Stand down and surrender pirate!" she snapped. "I already have two of your crew and unless you'd like the girl here to meet the ends of my knuckle busters, then you'll stand down immediately!" she grabbed Nami's arm for emphasis.

The man looked between them- a calculating look in his eyes and Tamayo resisted the urge to snarl, so she wrapped an arm around the girl's neck instead. "I'm running out of patience here!"

Sanji, after less than a second bowed his head and sighed. "I got it. I got it. I'll come in peacefully."

Tamayo didn't pause before turning her powers on him as well. "Obey Obey no Mi! Marionette!" green string like lights flew out from her fingertips and wrapped around the man as Sanji let out a startled gasp. At the same time, Tamayo felt her headache increase and she was stuck controlling three people now.

Just controlling the Captain by himself was difficult. Her power, which wasn't made for fighting, matched her will against the will of those that she tried to control. Since she had caught the man unaware, it had been easier, but his will was strong. It felt like trying to keep a beast caged with nothing more than a thin cage and a rusted lock. Controlling the girl was physically easier, but Tamayo didn't like the analytical look in her eyes. She knew without a doubt that she was probing for her weakness and watching her reactions, but Tamayo refused to let it show. She hid the pain of her headache behind her scowl and her shaking hands were easy to pass off as anger.

Now controlling this man, it felt like her head would split from the effort. He was as hard to control as his Captain, but rather than that wild energy, he had the same watchful edge as the girl. The combination wasn't good for her, so she needed to end this fast.

"What the hell?" he growled at her as he fought back against her control. Tamayo grit her teeth for the battle of wills between them. Her fruit gave her the edge, but it was hard. It was the exact reason that she hadn't tried to control Roronoa.

"Stop that!" Tamayo finally snapped at him before the lights flickering around Sanji strengthened. "Honestly, I'm sick and tired of this already. I don't have time to play with you Pirates anymore!" Silently she fumed about the current situation. Not only had her base been dealt heavy damage and most of her men injured, but it was all due to one small group of pirates. Even if she had wanted to save her reputation, this whole situation was just destroying it faster. She wanted this over _now_.

She glanced over towards the Captain of the pirate bunch and felt even more irritation there. Even now she could feel him fighting against her Total Control. She could still bend him to her will, but it had been much easier when he had been the only one under her control. Now with two more, she worried about how much longer she could keep this up.

She'd put in a call to the larger marine base just a few hours away to come take these pirates as soon as they could, and then she'd put in a more urgent request just before a lightning bolt had pierced her office. She knew for sure now that the faster that she could either get backup, or get these guys out of her hair, the better. For now she just had to settle on keeping them from escaping.

"Follow me!" she snapped before turning on her heel and walking back to the base. She hated to rely on him, but she needed to find Clarke now. He was strong and if she could get to him, then they could get Roronoa under control and settle this whole thing.

She made it a few feet back towards the base when there was a sudden explosion of energy and the ground just a dozen feet in front of her exploded.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" her shout was swallowed by the rush of air as she leapt back. The three pirates were blown back as well, although they hadn't been able to even brace themselves without her order. Tamayo stared in anger at the new source of destruction but she couldn't hold back her angry growl when Roronoa Zoro, looking beat up but still obviously in fighting condition, jumped out of the hole. In his arm was a furry brown… thing.

He landed on his feet on the opposite side of the hole from her and when he looked up she could see the anger in his eyes. "Oh?" he said, "You're the marine from earlier."

Before she could respond, another person jumped out of that hole and she looked up to see Clarke standing there. He'd lost his jacket at some point, but the man still looked intimidating and foreboding. "Captain Tamayo." He acknowledged. "My apologies. Roronoa has been a bit more difficult than expected to put down."

Tamayo snorted. "Yes, that seems to be a trend with this whole crew." She turned to watch the man as he laid the furry animal down on the ground, but she was distracted by a voice that shouted,

"Zoro!"

Tamayo turned to look behind her to see the girl, struggling to sit up. "Your swords!" Roronoa's eyes found them and Tamayo stood up to block his path while Clarke held his sword out in front of him again. They was no way that they were letting the man get past them. Feeling her anger reach its peak, she shouted,

"Luffy! This is an order! Defeat that pirate!" Even though the pirate hadn't been able to take out the blond man, she needed him to fight here. Even if he couldn't take down Roronoa right away, her and Clarke just needed that opening to strike. She didn't know how many crew members were still on this island, but she knew that if she could take down the strong ones like Roronoa then she'd have the advantage.

There was a pause when she realized that the pirate hadn't moved. He stared at her, a grimace on his face but he didn't move. "I gave you an order!" she snapped, but again he stayed where he was and with a snarl she poured more of her energy into enforcing her order. She stopped thinking about the other two under her control and just focused on him. "Go!"

This time he did move. His arm stretched out and blurred and Roronoa quickly threw his arms up in front of himself to block the blow. He was surprised when Luffy, instead of just hitting him, latched on and ricocheted towards him, coming in for a kick this time.

"Dammit!" Roronoa snarled as he had to dodge or block most of the shots. He was at a clear disadvantage without his swords, and they all knew it. "Cut the shit already Luffy!" He grabbed Luffy's arm after a missed punch and body slammed him into the ground instead. "You were fighting it before, so keep fighting!" Luffy grit his teeth from the impact, but he quickly retaliated, slamming a fist into the side of the other man's head.

Luffy quickly put distance between the two of them before a hand came up to his own head. Even though he hadn't been the one struck his head still felt like it was splitting in half. He watched the male marine jump in to strike at Zoro, and half of him was telling him to follow Tamago's order and keep fighting Zoro.

Another part of him kept screaming that this was all wrong. He didn't know the man past one conversation together, but his mind rebelled against the thought of fighting him. There was just something fundamentally wrong about the idea of it.

The two opposing sides were equal in strength and it made him was to tear his own head open. Before he could decide, a voice screamed at him,

"Luffy! Stop this already!" he looked over his shoulder to see the red head girl still trying to pull herself up. "You're stronger than this!" she looked at him with a firm but pleading gaze and Luffy didn't know who she was but his gut warmed up at her words.

"Yeah you idiot!" the blond man next to her shouted. "I know that you're an idiot but you gotta know that you shouldn't be fighting your own crew like this!" His own crew? Distantly Luffy heard Tamago yelling at him some more, but her words felt more distant now. They held less of that pull on him.

"Yeah Luffy! Please snap out of it!" Luffy turned his head again to see the furry little… raccoon dog? Lifting itself up. It looked wounded, but it still looked at him with eyes that seemed to cut into Luffy. "Zoro's getting hurt Luffy! Please stop!"

Luffy turned back to see Clarke's sword blur and a long line of red explode of Zoro's arm. Although the man still seemed like he could fight, Luffy's eyes widened at all of the blood. Zoro, also hearing the other's shouts, looked over at him and their eyes met. Luffy saw a lot of things that he didn't understand in those eyes, but he also saw the determination and the loyalty there. He couldn't get why the pirate was looking at _HIM_ like that.

"Luffy!" Zoro roared at him before blocking another blow from Clarke. "This has gone on long enough! We're all still waiting for you Captain!"

The words hit him in the chest like a physical blow. Luffy was aware that there were still people shouting at him and that there was still fighting going on- some of the marines were even getting up again- and his head felt like it really would split apart. Tamago was shouting at him, words that he didn't hear but his body understood well enough. Get Roronoa. Get Roronoa. _Get Roronoa._

Luffy's fist clenched and he took a deep breath to clear his head a lite. Man, he really didn't know what he was supposed to do now. His head and the people around him were telling him all sorts of things. So he just went with his gut.

Drawing his arm back, he aimed at where Clarke and Zoro were fighting. He heard people shouting at him to stop, but he let his arm fly once he had enough force behind it. And it flew and flew-

And hit Clarke in the face.

The man, clearly caught off guard, went flying through the air before hitting the ground and skidding back. In one fluid motion Luffy drew his arm back and stretched out with the other to grab Tamago and pull her towards him.

Baffled by his actions she looked up at him with wide eyes and asked, "What the hell are you doing?!" He hadn't broken free of her control yet because she could still feel that control there- even if the strands of it were weakening by the second. She grabbed his arm but his grip on her was solid.

"I dunno!" Luffy said with a laugh, shocking her even more. "Honestly my head hurts and I'm getting all sorts of ideas so I'm not sure that I should be doing right now, but one thing that I do know is that I feel like hitting you right now a lot more than I feel like hitting those other guys." He said, giving her a grin that was not friendly in the slightest.

Even expecting it, Tamayo couldn't block the solid blow to her solar plexus. Luffy's fist hit her and she hit the ground, and all she could think of before she felt the control over her devil fruit and her own consciousness fade, was how awful her luck had been lately.

Honestly she should have expected this.

* * *

Things progressed a lot smoother afterwards with the head of the marine base down for the count. Sanji and Nami, now freed, rushed to stop the rest of the marines and return Zoro's swords to him. Once Zoro had his swords back, Clarke didn't even try to fight back against the sword pressed against his throat. He gave up quickly- as did the other marines with a few dark looks from Sanji and the ominous flash of Nami's lightning overhead. The truth of the matter was just that the marines at the base were tired and outmatched and they knew it. Their Captain was unconscious and their base had several large holes in it. There was no way that they were going to come out on top from fighting these guys for any longer.

The rest of the crew, however, didn't have time to dawdle before they were off and running towards the coast that they had docked the boat. There was a good chance that the marines had long since found the Merry Go, and even if they had taken out the stronger people at the base, there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be more strong opponents waiting for them out at the ship. Plus it was only Robin and Usopp there defending the ship.

The crew tried to avoid attracting attention as much as possible as they made their way through the city, but they could only do so much when several of their members were wounded and covered in blood- Chopper and Zoro especially.

The marines that they ran into in the city were easier to dispatch of too, especially now that Luffy was back on their side.

By the time that they made it back to the ship, everyone was exhausted and weary, but they all stopped at the beach where there was no ship to be found.

"Merry?!" Chopper shouted while Nami looked around.

There were unconscious marine scattered around, which meant that there had been a scuffle here. Had Robin and Usopp moved the boat because they had been attacked or had the boat itself been taken? Nami was about to suggest that they split up when something poked her in the back and she let out a scream as she turned to see a hand sprouting out of a nearby tree. She quickly realized whose ability it was and she let out a questioning, "Robin?"

Robin sprouted several more arms and they all pointed in a direction that down the coast.

Nami and the rest of the crew took off in the direction that Robin had pointed it, with Chopper doubling back to grab Zoro when he ran off in the wrong direction. They only had to run for a few minutes before they saw the Merry Go sailing in the distance- its white sail and Jolly Roger like a beacon to the crew.

"They're ok!" Nami said with a sigh of relief that was shared by the rest of the crew. Now the only question left was to get over to the ship.

"Let's just wait here until they can bring the ship closer." Sanji suggested, reaching into his jacket pocket for the cigarette that he'd been craving for a while. He had barely gotten his hand into his pocket before he heard an entirely too chipper voice ask,

"Why wait?" In the next second there was the sound of rubber stretching and several grunts as Luffy's arm stretched around the rest of the crew. Seeing the grin on Luffy's face, the rest of the crew immediately began panicking and shouting at Luffy to stop, but it was too late. Luffy was already stretching his arm out before sending it flying towards the ship.

"Alright! Got it!" Luffy said with another grin, and before anyone could so much as scream, they were all pulled forward by the force of Luffy's body snapping back into shape. They went flying towards the ship like a missile, with Luffy letting go of them at the last second. Chopper hit the deck with an 'oomph' while Nami collided with Usopp- who had just been minding his own business, thank you very much- while Sanji's face hit the mast and Zoro, who raised a little rather than the rest, hit the railing and flipped over the edge of the ship, landing in the water below with a belly flop.

Luffy was the only one to land on his feet and once he was on deck he laughed. "Wow! That all was really crazy, but I'm glad to be back on the Merry, right you guys?" he looked around at the rest of the crew. Everyone was groaning in pain, with the exception of Robin, who was standing on the upper deck watching everyone else in pain, and Zoro, who was still in the ocean.

Not deterred at all by his crew's pain, Luffy looked back at Robin. "So, how were things over here?" he asked.

Robin continued to lean against the railing with her hand cupping her chin, but she shrugged. "Nothing too eventful. We had marines coming to the beach for a while, but eventually we had to move the ship because they'd sent some small boats out after us. We dealt with those as well." She said with a grin that wasn't at all pleasant.

Luffy grinned up at her, as radiant as always, and laughed. "Well as long as you guys are ok then that's good." He stopped to look around at everyone else. "Why are you guys still laying around?" he gave them a disapproving look. "We gotta get outta here right?"

"WHOSE FAULT IS IT THAT WE'RE LIKE THIS?!" several voice shouted at once, followed quickly after by Chopper's high pitched shout.

"You guys! Zoro hasn't resurfaced yet!"

"Let him drown Chopper. Besides, I've heard that Marimo love water." Sanji groaned at the same time that Usopp shouted,

"Get off of me already Nami! You're sitting on my back!"

"Shut up! I was just thrown through the air! Do you know how much that hurt?"

"YEAH BECAUSE YOU LANDED ON ME!"

Luffy's laughter again filled the air as he watched his crew bicker. His memories from the time when he'd forgotten them all were slowly coming back but all he could think was that he was sure that he'd never forget them again.

* * *

The boat settled down slightly once they fished Zoro out of the ocean, found the log pose, and got the back in a proper direction. Everyone focused on getting as far away from the marine base as possible, so there was less talking on the ship. Which is why it was even more apparent to Zoro that a certain person wasn't talking. He had no idea what was going on in Luffy's head right now, but this didn't seem like the time or place to ask.

Zoro observed Luffy whenever he could out of the corner of his eyes. Luffy was still getting underfoot at every turn, although Nami was too tired to do more than half-heartedly snap at him or send him elsewhere. Sanji had already gone into the kitchen to prepare some food for dinner while Usopp had climbed up to the crow's nest with some sheet metal and nails, muttering about bullet holes. Nami stood under her mikan trees with Robin, talking about something in quiet voices, while Chopper, after wrapping up Zoro's wounds and his own, had gone down to the men's room to sleep for a while. Of course Zoro had tried telling him not to worry about Zoro's wounds- especially because Zoro's pride was more hurt than anything else, but the doctor had just shot him a tired look, that had the swordsman's protests dying on his lips.

Luffy was sitting on the Merry Go's head. He'd been up there since Nami had declared that they were back on the right course and he hadn't moved much since. The sun had begun to set and it would be a while before it was completely dark. While Zoro's body was telling him to go get some sleep now, he ignored it and instead made his way to the front of the ship. He stopped a few steps away from the figurehead and leaned against the railing instead. Luffy acknowledged his presence by turning his head a little, but he didn't say anything and neither did Zoro for a while.

"That marine-"Zoro finally started, his voice low. Nami and Robin had left to their room a while ago and Usopp was still hammering away, so there was no chance of anyone overhearing them, but he still spoke in a low voice. "Do you still feel any of her control over you?" Luffy shook his head.

"Nope. It was kind of weird afterwards cause I had never really doubted anything that she'd said or told me to do, but now I totally don't get how she could have made me do all of that stuff." Zoro could practically hear the frown in his voice.

"That's just how it is with devil fruits." Zoro said with a slight nod. "But you broke free of it, so it's fine, right?"

"NO!" Luffy's sudden answer caught Zoro by surprise, and now Zoro could see the tension that Luffy had been trying to suppress. Usopp didn't stop hammering away so Zoro assumed that he hadn't heard the outburst. Zoro looked down to see Luffy's fists clenched and his knuckles turning white. "I forgot about you guys- she _made_ me forget about you guys. And with Sanji and you I even…" his voice trailed off, but his tense posture remained.

Zoro didn't let any of his emotions show on his face as he regarded Luffy. He could still remember some of the punches that the other man had thrown; the weight behind them. Luffy was a strong fighter, and even if there had ever been a time that Zoro had forgotten that before, he definitely wouldn't now. They were just lucky that Luffy had squared off against him and Sanji, rather than any of the others.

Of course he wanted to say something calming like how it wasn't Luffy's fault (which is wasn't, but Luffy wouldn't see it that way) or that everything was ok now, but he knew that neither of those would help, so he didn't say either. He just moved closer until his shoulder brushed Luffy's.

He was surprised when Luffy moved to lean even more heavily on him, but he didn't move away, and he didn't allow his thoughts to stray any farther than the here and now. He didn't think about how much he liked having Luffy pressed to his side.

"Hey Zoro," Luffy said after a pause. "When I was being controlled, we talked right? In those marine cells?"

"So you remember that?" Zoro asked him back. He had been wondering how Luffy's memories might be affected, but it seemed like he wouldn't have to worry too much.

Luffy nodded and turned his head slightly so that Zoro was seeing more of his face than just his profile. Luffy's eyes, coal black and serious, stared into Zoro's and it was second nature to meet Luffy's gaze. He didn't do it to challenge him, but he needed to see Luffy's eyes. To see the recognition and strength there. "Those things that you said back there- in that cell?" Luffy asked slowly. "Did you mean them?"

Zoro paused to remember what he said. Honestly it had been a bit embarrassing, but he'd meant every word of it. He nodded.

Luffy stared at him even harder before looking away towards the stars. "Ya know, when I didn't remember you, I first saw you and thought that you looked like a really cool guy." Luffy laughed a little and leaned back against Zoro more. Zoro just shifted so that Luffy was leaning against his chest more than his shoulder. "And then I got to talk to you and it was a lot of fun, even though you were pretty grumpy." Zoro snorted at the assessment and Luffy laughed again before continuing. "I've always wanted to be a pirate, and even when I forgot that I was one, I couldn't forget that feeling. So meeting a pirate like you was the coolest thing. And then I asked you about your crew and your Captain and…" Luffy trailed off again and Zoro looked down at the mop of messy black hair. He could tell that Luffy was trying hard here as he wasn't one who normally thought out all of his words. Luffy tensed up again as he admitted,

"And then you started talking about your Captain and you said all of this cool stuff and I couldn't stop thinking about how cool you were and then I realized that I didn't like it. I didn't like any of it." He laughed again. "Now I know that you were talking about me and I'm pretty happy but back then my chest hurt a lot and I felt pretty angry, even though I didn't really know you." Again, Zoro continued to say nothing, hoping that his silence would make it easier for Luffy.

"And so now I've been thinking-"

"Don't try too hard or else you'll get a headache." Zoro said in a deadpan. Ok, he couldn't resist saying that much, especially since he'd seen the very thing happen to Luffy before. Luffy enjoyed his comment a lot less and just grumbled at the other man.

"Zoro's so mean." Luffy said with a put out sigh.

"Yeah, yeah," Zoro nodded. "Now, what were you trying to tell me?" he asked and Luffy fell silent again.

There was a loud exhale and then, "I think that I like you Zoro."

"What?" Zoro's voice remained calm while his thoughts and heart was anything but.

"I think that I like you." Luffy said again, his voice a little louder now.

"You think?"

"Fine." Luffy huffed. "I like you Zoro. A lot."

"Luffy," Zoro said in a voice that was surprisingly calm. The one part of his brain that hadn't ground to a stop was still trying to process Luffy's words. As much as those words meant to him, he didn't want to jump at something that might not really be there. Luffy liked a lot of things for sure, like adventures, meat, and the rest of the crew. For all he knew this 'like' was that sort of like. "What are you saying? I'm not sure that I get what you mean."

Luffy huffed and turned his face towards Zoro. Zoro wasn't sure if the dusting of color across Luffy's cheeks was actually there or just his mind playing tricks on him, but he preferred to think that it was the former. "Zoro come on." He groaned before reaching out to grab at Zoro's hand. "Gimme that."

Zoro let his hand be pulled around as Luffy struck up a completely new conversation. "Ya know, every other year Foosha has a celebration like that ribbon thing and when I was younger Makino told Ace and me the whole story behind it."

"Makino?"

"Yeah. She ran the local bar and she was really cool. Anyways, she told us about that legend and about the whole ribbon thing and I thought that it must have been a really weird ribbon if it could stretch that far and still connect people. I thought that it was really confusing back then but," Luffy's voice trailed off and tugged Zoro closer to that he could look at their hands. "Now I think that I get the story a little more." His tone was much more serious than normal, although he was still speaking in a low tone.

Zoro barely noticed their close proximity- with Luffy's back against his chest and his chin brushing the top of Luffy's head. Instead he focused on the piece of ribbon that Luffy had been fiddling with. Luffy had no doubt gotten it earlier at the festival since they had been giving them out like crazy, but he was surprised that Luffy had held onto it.

He was even more surprised to see one end of it tied around his little finger and the other around Luffy's. The bright red color stood out even in the low light, almost like it was glowing in the moon light.

They stood in silence, with Zoro looking at their hands and Luffy looking up at Zoro, until Zoro finally said, "So you're pretty serious about this then?"

"Yup."

"And you actually know what you're doing here? What you're tell me right now?"

"Of course! Don't I always?"

"No you don't, but…" Zoro trailed off and slowly brought his other arm up. He draped it over Luffy's chest and across his shoulders, making sure that Luffy was comfortable with the gesture. Luffy just laughed and pulled the limb even closer. "I gotta say, I'm surprised though."

"Good surprised right?" Luffy asked and Zoro nodded after a second.

"Yeah. I usually am when it comes to you." And Zoro pressed his mouth to the top of Luffy's head, trying to hide the smile that wanted to replace his usual scowl. They'd talk more about this later, of course, when they weren't both exhausted and worn out from escaping marines, but for now words didn't seem necessary. Instead Zoro just pulled Luffy closer, content to let his actions speak for him as he shifted to press his lips against Luffy's temple. He could practically feel the other man's grin.

"Hey, Luffy," Zoro asked as a thought occurred to him. "You're not going to go wrapping ribbons around those other guys' fingers are you?"

Luffy snorted. "Nope!"

"Good. Because if you try this with that shit cook then I can promise that he will lose that finger."

"Zoro!"

"I'm being serious."

"You can't!" Luffy half shouted. "Sanji needs all of those fingers to cook!"

"I don't care." Zoro responded and the two of them bickered back and forth, feeling more comfortable than they had felt in the last 24 hours. Together they looked towards the future and towards the sunset that was dyed the same shade of red as the string wrapped around their fingers.

* * *

So, a big thank you to anyone who finished this whole thing and hopefully I'll be able to write more in the future! I already have some ideas- although not necessarily for zolu (*rubs my grubby lil hands all over Nami/Tashigi, Sabo/Ace, and Coby/Luffy*)

Anywho, thanks for reading, review if ya like, and hopefully I'll come up with something new soon~


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